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BS  2415  .S62  1922 
Slaten,  Arthur  Wakefield, 

1880- 
What  Jesus  taught 


The  University  of  Chicago  Publications 
IN  Religious  Education 

EDITED  BY 

ERNEST  D.   BURTON  SHAILER  MATHEWS 

THEODORE  G.   SOARES 


CONSTRUCTIVE  STUDIES 


WHAT  JESUS  TAUGHT 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO.  ILLINOIS 


THE  BAKER  AND  TAYLOR  COMPANY 


THE  CAMBRIDGE  UNIVERSITY  PRESS 

LONDON 

THE  MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA 

TOETO,  OSAEA,    KTUTO,    FUKUOKA,    SSMDAI 

THE  MISSION  BOOK  COMPANY 

SHANSBAl 


*      JUL  271922 


*T 


''01 


WHAT  JESUS 
TAUGHT 


0(i 


FOR   DISCUSSION  GROUPS  AND  CLASSES 


By 
A.  Wakefield  Slaten 

Head  of  the  Department  of  Religion  and  Ethia 

in  the   Young  Men^ s  Christian  Association  College 

of  Chicago 


THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 
CHICAGO,  ILLINOIS 


CAL  lit^ 


Copyright  1922  By 
The  University  of  Chicago 


All  Rights  Reserved 


Published  May  1922 


Composed  and  Printed  By 

The  University  of  Chicago  Press 

Chicago,  Illinois,  U.S.A. 


"The  Bible  is  the  word  of  Life.  I  beg  that  you  will  read  it 
and  find  this  out  for  yourselves — read,  not  little  snatches  here 
and  there,  but  long  passages  that  will  really  be  the  road  to  the 
heart  of  it." — ^Woodrow  Wilson. 

"Every  relationship  to  mankind  of  hate  or  scorn  or  neglect 
is  full  of  vexation  and  torment.  There  is  nothing  to  do  with 
men,  but  to  love  them,  to  contemplate  their  virtues  with  admira- 
tion, their  faults  with  pity  and  forbearance,  and  their  injuries 
with  forgiveness." — Anonymous. 

"And  after  all,  when  we  come  to  think  of  it,  error  alone 
is  dangerous;  things  are  what  they  are;  how  can  true  ideas 
concerning  them  harm  us,  or  false  ones  benefit  us  ?" — Paulsen. 

"//  any  man  is  able  to  convince  me,  and  show  me  that  I  do 
not  think  or  act  rightly  I  will  gladly  change;  for  I  seek  the 
truth,  by  which  no  man  was  ever  injured.  But  he  is  injured 
who  abides  in  his  error  and  ignorance." — Marcus  AuRELros. 


TO  THOSE  WHO  ARE  WILLING 
TO  TAKE  THE  PAINS  TO  FIND 
OUT     WHAT    JESUS     TAUGHT 


PREFATORY  NOTE 

It  is  the  firm  conviction  of  the  editors  of  the 
series  in  which  this  book  appears  that  in  the  ideals 
of  Jesus  as  set  forth  in  his  words  and  exemplified 
in  his  life  are  to  be  found  the  answers  to  the  great 
questions  of  personal  conduct  and  the  way  of  life 
for  communities  and  nations.  There  are  various 
ways  of  approach  to  the  study  of  these  ideals,  each 
of  which  has  its  advantages.  The  present  volume 
illustrates  an  unusual  method  of  study,  but  one 
which  we  believe  to  be  well  adapted  to  groups  of 
students  in  colleges,  and  to  thoughtful  adults  every- 
where.    To  such  they  heartily  commend  it. 

The  Editors 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

Foreword xv 

Hints  to  Leaders xix 

CHAPTER 

I.  Why  People  Study  the  Bible  .       .       .       .         i 
II.  What  the  Bible  Is 23 

III.  The  World  Jesus  Lived  In      ....       44 

IV.  The   Importance   and   the   Difficulty   of 
Knowing  What  Jesus  Taught.       .       .       .       61 

V.  What  Jesus  Taught  about  Civilization      .       72 

VI.  What  Jesus  Taught  about  Hate,  War,  and 

Non-Resistance loi 

VII.  What  Jesus  Taught  about  Democracy  .       .118 

VIII.  What  Jesus  Taught  about  Religion     .       .128 

IX.  What  Jesus  Taught  about  Himself      .       .158 

X.  What  Jesus  Taught:    The  Hope   of   the 
World .       .     178 

Index 191 


FOREWORD 

The  discussions  outlined  in  this  book  are  in- 
tended especially  for  groups  of  college  students 
and  of  others  of  like  maturity  of  mind.  The 
field  of  study  is  limited  to  the  three  gospels, 
Mark,  Matthew,  and  Luke,  called,  because  they 
treat  the  life  of  Jesus  from  the  same  general 
point  of  view,  the  synoptists  (Greek  synoplikos, 
"seeing  together").  It  has  been  thought  best  not 
to  attempt  to  discriminate  between  the  elements 
of  the  gospels  which  may  come  directly  from  Jesus 
and  those  that  may  hail  from  the  gospel  writers 
themselves  or  from  the  circles  of  early  Christian 
thinking  which  they  represent.  This  is  a  task 
frequently  attempted  by  scholars,  but  one  which 
involves  a  much  longer  course  of  study  than  many 
people  have  time  for.  It  has  seemed  more  practi- 
cal to  take  all  the  teachings  upon  a  given  subject 
which  the  gospels  Mark,  Matthew,  and  Luke  attrib- 
ute to  Jesus  and  build  these  into  as  complete  and 
consistent  a  statement  as  we  can. 

It  is  expected  that  all  users  of  the  book  will  keep 
the  New  Testament  at  hand  and  verify  from  it  all 
statements  made  for  which  passages  are  cited.  No 
textbook  can  take  the  place  of  direct  study  of  the 
New  Testament  itself. 


xvi  Foreword 

The  book  is  designed  to  be  usable  in  a  variety  of 
ways,  for  example: 

1 .  Where  the  group  leader  only  may  have  a  copy 
of  the  book. 

2.  Where  each  member  of  the  group  has  a  copy. 

3.  Where  members  of  the  group  may  be 
expected  to  study  beforehand. 

4.  Where  the  study  must  be  made  in  class. 

5.  Where  the  book  is  used  by  individuals  for 
personal  and  devotional  study. 

For  the  average  Sunday-school  class  or  student 
group,  it  will  be  advisable  for  each  member  to  have 
his  own  copy.  Where  the  group  is  very  large  and 
the  lecture  method  must  largely  be  employed,  it  may 
be  sufficient  for  the  leader  alone  to  have  a  copy. 
Used  in  this  way  he  will  find  the  book  to  contain 
material  for  about  thirty  lectures.  In  summer- 
school  and  conference  classes  of  the  Y.M.C.A.  and 
Y.W.C.A.  every  member  of  the  group  should  be 
provided  with  the  book. 

Wherever  possible  the  chapter  or  part  of  a  chap- 
ter to  be  used  for  a  basis  of  discussion  should  be 
carefully  studied  beforehand  by  the  members  of  the 
group,  and  the  gospel  passages  consulted.  In  no 
case,  however,  should  the  meeting  of  the  group  take 
the  form  of  a  recitation.  The  object  of  the  book  is 
to  stimulate  constructive  thinking,  not  to  train  the 
memory.  Where  study  cannot  be  expected  the 
passages  should  be  read  and  discussed  in  the  group. 


Foreword  xvii 

Where  individuals  use  the  book  for  personal  study, 
a  careful  checking  up  of  the  gospel  passages  cited 
should  be  made,  the  book  freely  marked,  and  notes 
kept  on  the  flyleaves  of  thoughts  suggested  by  the 
study.  When  the  user  finds  statements  at  variance 
with  his  present  belief  he  should  make  note  of  them 
for  future  thought  and  investigation. 

Only  a  few  things  are  necessary  to  make  college 
Bible-study  discussion  groups  interesting  and  profit- 
able. Think  clearly  and  hard ;  speak  with  modesty 
and  candor;  never  fail  to  make  your  contribution 
to  the  discussion,  but  beware  of  monopolizing  class 
time;  never  slur  another's  views,  however  absurd 
they  may  seem  to  you;  avoid  overstatements  and 
bad  temper;  realize  that  ultimately  thought  rules 
in  this  world,  and  that  we  get  ahead  by  sharing 
thoughts;  stick  to  the  evidence ;  believe  that  people 
can  and  will  find  the  truth  and  that  it  is  best  for 
them  to  have  the  truth;  be  absolutely  free  to  follow 
wherever  the  truth  leads  you.  It  is  said  that  all 
the  wonderful  progress  made  by  modern  science  has 
been  made  by  the  inductive  method  of  reasoning, 
and  that  the  inductive  method  of  reasoning  consists 
of  three  stages :  accurate  observation,  exact  record, 
limited  inference.  Where  these  are  practiced  the 
discussions  will  always  bring  wholesome  results. 

The  aim  of  the  book,  however,  is  not  so  much  to 
furnish  a  manual  of  methods  as  to  suggest  a  basis 
for  class  discussions  and  to  indicate  the  spirit  in 


xviii  Foreword 

which  discussions  may  be  most  profitably  carried 
on.  The  topics  chosen  are  those  which  experience 
with  numerous  discussion  groups  of  various  types, 
e.g.,  Y.M.C.A.  secretaries,  ministers,  Y.W.C.A. 
secretaries,  college  students,  Baraca  classes,  and 
groups  of  business  men,  has  shown  to  be  of 
formative  value.  In  so  far  as  the  book  is  informa- 
tional it  tries  to  put  into  the  user's  hands  facts  that 
will  be  helpful  to  him  in  his  personal  religious  think- 
ing and  in  teaching  and  promoting  classes.  Most 
of  all,  though,  it  is  hoped  that,  though  those  who 
use  this  book  may  not  agree  with  one  another  on 
all  points,  they  will  find  in  the  class  a  constant 
demonstration  of  Christianity,  and  will  come  to  the 
end  with  that  enthusiasm  for  service,  that  passion  for 
"the  Jesus  way  of  living,"  that  esprit  de  corps  and 
affection  for  one  another,  that  tolerance  that  results 
from  united  devotion  to  a  great  unselfish  cause, 
which  have  marked  the  members  of  the  discussion 
groups  with  whom  the  author  has  used  these  studies. 
Remember  the  words  of  Jesus, ''  I  am  among  you 
as  he  that  serveth"  (Luke  22:27).  The  question 
one  is  to  put  to  one's  self  in  every  situation  is, 
"How  can  I  be  of  service  to  this  person  or  to  these 
persons  so  that  working  together  we  may  make  this 
a  better  world?"  God  bless  you,  fellow- students 
in  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  build  you  in  helpful 
ways  into  the  lives  of  hundreds  and  of  thousands. 

A.  Wakefield  Slaten 


HINTS  TO  LEADERS 

No  certain  period  is  specified  in  which  a  group 
ought  to  cover  the  chapters  of  this  book.  Some 
mature  groups  may  be  able  to  cover  a  chapter  at 
each  discussion.  In  practice,  however,  it  has  been 
found  that  each  chapter  furnished  stimulus  for 
several  discussion  periods  of  one  hour  each.  The 
leader  should  not  hurry  the  matter.  The  point  is 
not  to  get  through  the  book  as  soon  as  possible,  but 
to  follow  the  class  interests,  seize  the  moment  of 
aroused  curiosity,  and  hold  points  before  the  minds 
of  the  group  for  all  possible  views  to  be  brought  out 
and  a  tentative  conclusion  to  be  reached.  At  the 
close  of  each  discussion  the  leader  should  sum  up 
impartially  and  briefly  the  general  sentiment, 
remembering  that  it  represents  the  joint  thinking  of 
the  group  up  to  the  moment,  and  that  it  may  be 
revised  later.  He  should  regard  the  discussions  as 
a  process,  and  not  look  upon  the  sentiments 
expressed  as  unalterable  decisions.  This  considera- 
tion tends  to  tolerance  and  temperate  speech. 

In  every  group  there  will  be  a  few  quiet  souls 
who  will  be  content  to  listen.  Often  their  thinking 
is  the  straightest  and  most  suggestive  that  is  being 
done.  The  leader  must  be  skilful  enough  to  enlist 
their  contribution,  or  the  discussion  will  suffer  seri- 


XX  Hints  to  Leaders 

ous  loss.  He  can  easily  find  a  way  to  do  this  with- 
out embarrassment  to  the  quiet  one.  Direct  ques- 
tions should  be  avoided  in  such  cases,  as  the  timid 
member  is  likely  to  reply,  "I  don't  know,"  and  thus 
to  be  confirmed  in  his  diffidence.  Skilful  teachers 
are  careful  not  to  permit  their  pupils  to  fail  in  recita- 
tion, because  failure  destroys  confidence  and  tends 
to  induce  an  attitude  of,  "Well,  I  know  I  can't  do 
it."  He  may  speak  to  the  silent  member  before 
or  after  the  discussion  and  encourage  participation. 
If  there  are  several  of  them  he  may  "jolly"  them 
during  the  discussion  as  a  group  and  get  them  to 
take  part.  The  object  of  the  discussion  is  the 
dcA^elopment  of  every  member  in  thinking  and  in 
expressing  his  thoughts. 

On  the  other  hand,  an  overconfident  member 
will  occasionally  emerge  whose  tendency  is  to  mo- 
nopolize the  discussion  and  make  himself  a  bore. 
Here  skilful  and  quick  action  is  necessary.  As  a 
first  step,  the  leader  may  emphasize  the  need  of 
general  discussion  and  the  drawing  out  of  the  thinlc- 
ing  of  all.  If  necessary,  he  may  go  farther  and  say, 
"We  now  have  Mr.  Blank's  views  before  us  pretty 
fully,  let's  see  what  some  others  have  to  say." 
Where  the  talking  member  is  incorrigible,  group 
action  is  likely  to  be  the  best  way  of  handling  him. 
Let  the  class  be  asked,  "Mr.  Blank  has  already 
spoken  several  times.  Shall  we  hear  him  further, 
or  get  the  views  of  others?"    The  group  will  usu- 


Hints  to  Leaders  xxi 

ally  find  a  way  of  "sitting  down"  upon  an  obstrep- 
erous and  selfish  member  who  "likes  to  do  all  the 
talking." 

Further,  the  leader  must  himself  be  on  his  guard 
that  he  does  not  himself  talk  too  much.  He  is  not 
to  carry  on  a  monologue.  It  has  been  found  a  good 
plan  for  him  to  have  someone  in  the  group  hold  a 
watch  and  check  up  the  number  of  seconds  taken 
by  him  in  his  remarks.  He  ought  to  take  less  than 
half  the  total  time. 

Again  the  leader  is  not  to  allow  himself  to 
become  involved  in  a  dialogue.  He  is  not  to  debate 
with  any  member,  and  should  interject  remarks  only 
to  guide  and  to  stimulate  discussion.  He  must  sum 
up  fairly  at  the  close,  even  though  the  drift  of  senti- 
ment has  been  against  his  personal  convictions. 
He  is  not  functioning  as  a  teacher,  in  the  ordinary 
sense;  he  is  not  a  lecturer;  he  is  one  of  the  group, 
presiding  for  the  purpose  of  getting  the  topic  before 
the  minds  of  the  group  and  of  holding  the  discussion 
to  the  topic  proposed.  He  must,  if  the  discussion 
wanders  into  unrelated  subjects,  switch  it  back  on 
the  main  track. 

The  leader  must  make  himself  the  central  figure 
to  whom  the  remarks  of  the  members  are  addressed. 
Cross-firing  of  remarks  from  one  member  to  another 
takes  the  discussion  out  of  his  control.  If  he  is  alert 
and  quick  on  the  uptake  and  gives  each  member  his 
chance,  he  can  generally  keep  the  control.     There 


xxii  Hints  to  Leaders 

should  be  no  formality,  no  addressing  of  the  leader 
as  "Mr.  Chairman";  the  discussion  is  not  a  debat- 
ing club. 

The  leader  has  a  position  that  is  very  important 
and  influential.  He  is  a  promoter  of  constructive 
thinking.  His  interest  is  not  an  abstract  one,  in 
the  subject  under  discussion,  but  a  concrete  one, 
the  possible  effects  upon  thought  and  character  of 
the  discussion.  He  should  be  a  level-headed  per- 
son, mentally  alert,  not  quick-tempered,  and  should 
have  a  sense  of  humor. 

The  ability  to  lead  a  discussion  group  well  is  one 
to  be  prized  and  developed.  Clear  thinking  is 
greatly  needed  on  all  sides,  in  no  place  more  so  than 
in  religion.  The  discussion-group  leader  has  an 
opportunity  for  distinctive  and  influential  service. 


CHAPTER  I 

WHY  PEOPLE  STUDY  THE  BIBLE 

Impulsive  action. — People  often  act  without  any 
philosophy  of  action.  Even  far-reaching  decisions 
such  as  the  choice  of  a  college,  one's  business,  one's 
wife  or  husband,  may  be  made  without  clearly 
thinking  out  the  arguments  pro  and  con  or  consider- 
ing the  implications  of  the  decision.  This  sort  of 
action  we  call  action  from  impulse.  Sometimes  it 
turns  out  well,  but  often  it  is  ill-advised  and  fol- 
lowed by  regret.  Most  wrong  action  is  impulsive 
action.  Impulse  is  not  a  safe  guide  until  its  sugges- 
tions have  been  approved  by  calm  thinking. 

Action  from  habit  or  custom. — Again,  in  things 
that  we  have  been  doing  for  a  long  time,  or  that  we 
are  used  to  seeing  others  do,  we  are  very  liable  to 
act  without  thinking  why.  If  we  follow  unthink- 
ingly our  own  way  of  acting,  we  are  controlled  by 
habit;  if  we  unthinkingly  copy  others,  we  are  con- 
trolled by  custom.  Habit  and  custom  sometimes 
have  good  foundations,  but  often  they  have  not. 
Neither  habit  nor  custom  is  a  safe  guide  until  it  has 
been  examined  as  to  its  reason  and  value  and  we 
have  assured  ourselves  of  its  efficiency  and  good 
sense. 

Reasoned  action. — The  safest  basis  for  action  is 
reason.   Taking  all  the  relevant  facts  into  considera- 


2  What  Jesus  Taught 

tion,  thinking  out  what  the  effects  of  our  action  are 
likely  to  be,  noticing  what  alternatives  there  are, 
weighing  what  the  result  will  be  if  we  do  not  act  at 
all,  questioning  whether  our  inclinations  are  biased 
in  any  way,  disregarding  prejudice  and  fear,  we  at 
length  decide  and  act.  Often,  however,  it  is  neces- 
sary to  decide  and  act  quickly,  and  there  is  not 
time  for  us  to  review  all  the  facts,  or  see  all  the 
alternatives,  or  perceive  all  the  effects.  Even 
with  plenty  of  time  to  turn  over  the  matter  in  our 
minds  we  may  overlook  some  determinative  factor, 
or  our  judgment  may  be  affected  by  emotion,  as 
anger  or  dislike,  or  we  may  be  overinfluenced  by 
another  person,  and  so  our  reasoned  action  turn  out 
after  all  to  be  wrong  or  mistaken.  Nevertheless, 
such  a  method  of  action  comes  nearest  to  perfection, 
and  when  a  number  of  people  reason  together  on  a 
matter,  their  calm,  united  judgment  is  very  likely 
to  be  correct.  Prayer  is  of  value  both  to  individu- 
als and  to  groups  in  reasoning  and  reaching  deci- 
sions, because  it  steadies  and  quiets  one  and  clears 
the  mind  so  it  can  do  its  best  work.  Reasoned 
action,  then,  is  most  likely  to  be  right  action. 

The  discussion-group  method. — Now  in  the  dis- 
cussion-group method  of  Bible-study  as  in  perhaps 
no  other  method  reasoned  action  tends  to  displace 
action  from  impulse,  habit,  or  custom.  Though 
probably  many  members  of  the  discussion  group 
have  already,  through  personal  reading,  attendance 


Why  People  Study  the  Bible  3 

upon  or  teaching  of  Bible  classes,  correspondence 
courses,  or  other  church,  college,  or  young  people 's 
activities,  given  more  or  less  attention  to  the  Bible, 
experience  with  large  numbers  of  people  in  succes- 
sive classes  shows  that  generally  what  has  been 
acquired  through  such  methods  is  rather  a  theory 
about  the  Bible  than  knowledge  of  the  Bible  itself. 
Also  the  general  effect  has  been  to  develop  what 
may  be  called  the  accepting  type  of  mind,  rather 
than  the  investigative,  constructive  type.  The  dis- 
cussion-group method  as  we  propose  to  follow  it  is 
severe  in  its  demands  for  patient,  free,  constructive 
thinking.  Its  effects  are  consequently  more  deeply 
registered  in  character.  Its  appeal  is  to  one's 
thinking  power,  rather  than  to  impulse,  habit,  or 
custom.  It  presupposes  that  you,  as  a  member  of 
the  discussion  group,  are  willing  to  lay  down  any- 
thing that  you  may  have  previously  thought  true, 
if  the  discussions  bring  out  facts  that  disprove  your 
opinion;  it  presupposes,  too,  that,  as  a  member  of 
the  discussion  group,  you  are  willing  to  take  up  and 
champion  anything  that  may  be  new  to  you  or 
which  you  may  previously  have  thought  false,  if 
the  discussions  bring  out  facts  that  prove  that 
thing  true.  If  you  cannot  assume  this  attitude 
you  had  much  better  stop  at  this  point  and  have 
nothing  to  do  with  the  discussion  group.  The  dis- 
cussions of  people  who  are  already  unalterably  com- 
mitted to  any  opinion  result  in  no  progress  and  are 


4  What  Jesus  Taught 

likely  to  be  painful.  It  is  only  those  who  are  sin- 
cerely willing  to  reason  together  upon  the  common 
stock  of  facts  who  can  reach  a  concert  of  opinion,  or 
be  really  helpful  to  one  another.  In  the  discussion 
group  action  is  to  be  based,  not  upon  impulse,  habit, 
or  custom,  but  upon  reason. 

WHERE   BIBLE-STUDY   FAILS 

Superficiality. — With  impulse,  habit,  or  custom 
as  an  incentive,  it  has  long  been  a  common  thing  for 
people  to  study,  or  to  think  they  were  studying,  the 
Bible.  Obviously,  however,  much  of  their  effort 
was  not  real  study.  Study  has  been  defined  as 
"mental  effort  to  master  a  problem."  Study  of 
that  type  always  strengthens  the  mind,  provokes 
original  thought,  arouses  discussion,  affects  con- 
duct, and  builds  character.  Much  so-called  Bible- 
study  has  not  done  that,  because  it  was  not  mental 
effort  to  master  a  problem.  It  involved  only  the 
passive  assimilation  of  a  mass  of  predigested 
instruction.  It  was  thus  easy,  superficial,  and 
developed  only  believers,  not  thinkers.  It  did  not 
call  for  that  tense  strain  of  will,  that  merciless 
uncovering  of  one's  weaknesses  and  ignorances 
which  real  study  involves.  It  failed,  therefore,  to 
incite  eager,  robust,  independent,  fearless  search  for 
fact,  with  that  search's  consequent  bracing  effect 
upon  character.  Much  so-called  Bible-study  fails 
because  of  its  superficiality. 


Why  People  Study  the  Bible  5 

Misdirection. — Further,  some  study  of  the 
Bible  that  is  earnest  and  ingenious  is  worthless 
because  it  is  misdirected.  Much  sturdy  walking 
may  be  done  on  a  road  that  leads  nowhere.  In 
rightly  directed  study  we  take  up  a  subject  with  an 
adequate  idea  of  what  it  is,  and  what  is  to  be  gained 
from  it.  We  do  not  take  up  French  and  think  we 
are  studying  Greek,  nor  practice  the  cornet  and  say 
we  are  learning  the  piano.  But  with  the  Bible  this 
has  not  been  the  case.  It  has  often  been  studied 
as  if  it  were  something  other  than  it  is.  This  para- 
graph is  not  the  place  to  go  into  detail,  but  it  is 
right  to  say  that  there  have  been  some  sad  conse- 
quences. An  amount  of  effort  has  been  put  forth 
that  would  have  made  a  cultured  Christian  gentle- 
man, and  the  result  has  been  only  a  fanatic  or  a 
bore.  Acquaintance  with  these  misguided  Bible- 
students  has  often  prejudiced  people  against  the 
Bible.  Moreover,  the  effort  to  reconcile  an  arti- 
ficial view  of  the  Bible  which  one  has  been  taught 
with  one's  own  reading  of  it,  or  with  the  results  of 
one's  studies  in  other  subjects,  often  involves  acute 
distress  and  sometimes  the  loss  of  faith.  None  of 
these  is  the  Bible's  fault,  but  the  fault  of  previous 
misdirected  effort  and  of  regarding  the  Bible  as 
something  other  than  it  really  is.  Like  every  other 
thing  that  has  objective  existence,  the  Bible  actu- 
ally is  something,  and  has  been  that  something  all 
the  while,  no  matter  what  may  have  been  thought 


6  What  Jesus  Taught 

about  it  or  claimed  for  it.  For  lack  of  finding  out 
at  the  start  what  the  Bible  is  much  time  and  effort 
has  been  wasted. 

CONTROLLING   INTERESTS   IN  BIBLE-STUDY 

I.  Language. — Before  we  go  farther,  or  attempt 
to  say  what  the  Bible  is  and  how  we  plan  to  approach 
it,  let  us  think  over  the  main  interests  that  have 
controlled  people  in  their  study  of  the  Bible. 
Naturally  there  are  a  number  of  these,  and  they 
vary  in  their  value.  To  begin  with  the  interest 
that  is  perhaps  to  most  people  the  most  remote  and 
unusual,  some  have  studied  it  because  of  its  lan- 
guage, or  more  properly,  its  languages,  for  as  it  stood 
originally  the  Bible  was  in  three  languages,  the  Old 
Testament  being  in  Hebrew  and  Aramaic,  the 
New  Testament  in  Greek.  Only  a  small  part  of 
the  Old  Testament  was  in  Aramaic,  however,^ 
and  Hebrew  and  Aramaic  are  sister-languages,  like 
Spanish  and  Portuguese,  so  that  a  man  who  can 
read  Hebrew  can  easily  learn  Aramaic. 

Now  the  Old  Testament  contains  the  best 
Hebrew  that  has  ever  been  written,  consequently  it 
has  an  attraction  for  the  person  who  is  interested  in 
that  language,  as  many  Jews  and  some  Gentiles  are. 

'Only  Ezra  4: 8 — 6:18;  7:12-26;  Dan.  2:46 — 7 :  28  are  written 
in  Aramaic.  Besides  these  there  are  a  few  Aramaic  words  and 
phrases  in  the  New  Testament,  for  example  in  Mark  5:41;  7:34; 
15:34;  Matt.  27:46;  I  Cor.  16:22. 


Why  People  Study  the  Bible  7 

There  is  another  important  and  much  larger  collec- 
tion of  literature  written  in  Hebrew,  the  Talmud/ 
but  although  this  has  much  curious  and  interesting 
and  valuable  material,  the  language  and  style  is  not 
equal  to  the  Hebrew  of  the  Bible. 

If  a  Frenchman  were  interested  in  American 
literature,  and  had  a  talent  for  language-study,  he 
would  prefer  to  read  our  best  authors  in  the  lan- 
guage they  used,  rather  than  in  a  translation.  In 
the  same  way,  a  person  who  is  interested  in  Hebrew 
literature,  and  has  a  talent  for  language-study, 
wishes  to  read  the  Old  Testament  authors  in 
Hebrew,  the  language  in  which  they  wrote.  Often 
interest  in  the  Bible  itself  has  created  interest  in  its 
languages.  Men  have  been  led  to  study  the 
Hebrew  Old  Testament  in  order  to  translate  it  into 
some  other  language,  or  to  improve  a  translation 
already  in  existence.  Often,  too,  it  has  been  sup- 
posed that  those  who  could  read  the  Bible  in  its  origi- 
nal languages  had  a  great  advantage,  in  that  they 
could  discover  meanings  hidden  to  the  reader  of  a 

'  This  is  an  immense  collection  of  Hebrew  learning  twenty 
times  as  large  as  the  Old  Testament.  It  contains  two  parts,  the 
Mishna,  compiled  in  its  present  form  by  Rabbi  Juda  the  Holy 
about  200  A.D.,  and  the  Gemara,  written  by  later  rabbis  down  to 
about  500  A.D.  It  consists  of  the  Jewish  oral  law  reduced  to 
writing,  plus  comments  on  the  law  of  Moses,  or  written  law. 
Scholars  are  drawn  to  the  study  of  the  Talmud,  not  for  its  lan- 
guage, but  for  its  intrinsic  interest  and  the  influence  it  has  had 
upon  Judaism. 


8  What  Jesus  Taught 

translation.  This  is  why  ministers  were  formerly 
thoroughly  trained  in  Hebrew.  At  the  present 
time  this  advantage,  which  after  all  ministers  did 
not  very  generally  make  much  use  of,  is  less  con- 
sidered, and  other  subjects,  regarded  as  more  essen- 
tial, are  emphasized. 

Passing  to  the  New  Testament,  the  case  is  not 
in  all  respects  the  same.  The  New  Testament  does 
not  contain  the  best  Greek  ever  written.  Most  of 
it  is  in  the  common,  everyday  Greek  of  the  time 
when  it  was  written.  Some  of  it,  indeed,  is  very 
poor  and  ungrammatical  Greek.  In  only  a  few 
places  is  there  an  attempt  to  use  bookish  language. 
The  classic  period  of  Greek  literature  was  from  500 
to  300  B.C.,  while  the  books  of  the  New  Testament 
were  not  written  till  roughly  70-170  a.d.,  centuries 
after  the  greatest  Greek  authors  had  passed  away. 
Those  who  are  interested  in  Greek  literature  and 
wish  to  read  it  in  the  original  therefore  prefer  to 
read  Homer  and  Demosthenes  and  Plato,  rather 
than  the  Book  of  Revelation,  or  James,  Peter,  or 
Mark,  or  even  the  better  Greek  of  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews  and  of  Luke  and  of  Paul.  But  if  one 
cares  for  the  history  of  language,  the  New  Testa- 
ment Greek  has  a  great  interest  because  it  shows 
him  how  the  language  was  changing  and  gives  him 
a  link  between  the  earlier  Greek  of  the  post-classical 
period  and  the  later  Greek  of  the  patristic  and 
Byzantine  periods.     In  fact  the  modern  Greek  of 


Why  People  Study  the  Bible  9 

the  present  day  is  much  less  different  from  the 
Greek  of  the  New  Testament  than  is  generally  sup- 
posed.^ 

2.  History. — A  somewhat  larger  group  is  drawn 
to  the  Bible  by  an  interest  in  history.  History 
is  coming  to  be  regarded  more  and  more  as  the 
great  teacher  of  manlvind.  While  a  knowledge  of 
history  does  not  make  one  able  to  foretell  the  future 
with  accuracy,  it  does  tend  to  give  a  broad  under- 
standing of  life  and  enables  one  to  see  the  causes  of 
many  of  our  present  conditions.  Now  closely  knit 
up  with  the  history  of  all  the  nations  of  Europe  and 
America  are  two  elements,  the  Jewish  people  and 
the  Christian  religion.  The  source  book  for  the 
early  history  of  both  these  elements  is  the  Bible. 

The  Old  Testament  gives  what  the  Jews  knew  or 
believed  as  to  their  origin,  their  settlement  in  Pales- 
tine, the  development  of  the  Jewish  state,  the  acts 
of  their  various  kings,  their  political  connections 

'  M.  Hatziadakis,  a  modern  Greek  scholar,  finds  that  46  per 
cent  of  the  words  used  in  the  New  Testament  are  current  in 
modern  Greek  today.  In  fact  the  realization  that  Greek  is  a 
modem  language,  spoken  by  nine  million  people,  suggests  the 
feasibihty  and  interest  of  making  the  approach  to  ancient  Greek 
through  the  medium  of  the  modern,  living  language,  which  does 
not  differ  from  the  Greek  of  the  earlier  periods  as  the  Romance 
languages  differ  from  the  Latin  from  which  they  spring.  It  is 
recommended  that  any  reader  who  is  interested  in  Greek  form 
an  acquaintance  with  a  Greek.  This  is  not  difficult,  as  they  are 
to  be  found  in  business  in  our  cities  and  towns  generally.  Such 
an  acquaintance  will  lead  to  many  interesting  discoveries. 


lo  What  Jesus  Taught 

with  adjacent  nations,  their  subjugation  and  exile, 
and  their  return  to  Palestine  about  445  B.C.  Sub- 
sequent Jewish  history  must  be  sought  in  other 
books,  but  the  Old  Testament  gives  the  most  of 
what  is  known  up  to  this  point. 

Josephus,  it  is  true,  wrote  fully  on  Jewish  history 
up  to  70  A.D.,  in  his  two  books  The  Antiquities  of  the 
Jews,  and  The  Jewish  War,  but  the  former  is  largely 
a  re-writing  and  expansion  of  the  Old  Testament. 
Similarly,  in  the  early  Christian  writers  before  325 
A.D.,  whose  works  have  been  preserved  and  which 
are  collected  and  translated  into  English  in  a  set  of 
ten  large  volumes  called  the  Ante-Nicene  Fathers, 
we  have  much  that  throws  light  upon  their  own 
time,  but  their  works  draw  upon  the  New  Testa- 
ment for  whatever  historical  matter  they  present 
concerning  the  origin  of  Christianity.  The  New 
Testament  goes  farther  back  and  gives  us  what  at 
the  earliest  period  was  known  and  believed  among 
the  early  Christians  as  to  the  origin  and  develop- 
ment of  the  Christian  movement,  including  the  life 
and  teaching  of  its  founder.  Because,  therefore,  of 
interest  in  the  Jews,  or  in  Christianity,  or  because 
both  are  involved  in  the  history  of  modern  civiliza- 
tion, people  have  been  led  to  study  the  Bible. 

3.  Proof -texts. — A  third  interest  leading  to 
Bible-study  has  been  the  desire  to  find  there  the 
basis  for  a  belief  or  a  defense  of  a  doctrine.  This 
we  may  call  the  theological,  or  proof-text  inter- 


Why  People  Study  the  Bible  ii 

est.'  From  a  remote  period  this  has  been  a  powerful 
stimulus  to  Bible-study.  The  Jewish  rabbis  used 
the  Old  Testament  in  this  way  before  Christianity 
began.  The  early  Christians  borrowed  the  idea 
from  their  own  Jewish  training  or  from  their  Jewish 
neighbors.  The  New  Testament  in  many  passages, 
notably  in  the  Gospel  of  Matthew,  shows  the  work- 
ing of  this  interest.  After  the  books  of  the  New 
Testament  had  been  written  and  collected  into 
one  sacred  book  the  Christians  used  statements 
from  it  also  in  proof  of  the  correctness  of  their  views. 
Thus  the  Bible  was  largely  woven  into  the  doctrines 
of  Catholic  Christianity,  and  is  still  quoted  in  their 
support.^ 

When  in  the  sixteenth  century  a  great  number 
of  Roman  Catholic  Christians  broke  away  from  the 
rest  under  the  leadership  of  Martin  Luther  in  Ger- 
many, John  Calvin  in  Switzerland,  and  other 
leaders  elsewhere,  these  Protestants,  as  they  were 
called,  put  a  still  stronger  emphasis  upon  the  Bible 

'  The  cause  of  this  interest  has  been  the  common  assumption, 
first  by  the  Hebrews  themselves,  later,  and  to  a  modified  degree, 
by  the  Catholic  church  in  its  various  branches,  and  finally  and 
to  an  extreme  degree  in  Protestantism,  that  in  the  Bible  is  given 
a  divinely  produced  and  therefore  errorless  book,  telling  what 
God  desires  people  to  do  and  believe,  particularly  in  matters 
looked  upon  as  distinctly  religious.  Looking  upon  the  Bible 
in  this  way,  it  has  been  natural  to  turn  to  it  as  an  arbiter  of 
religious  opinion. 

^  Consult,  for  example.  Cardinal  Gibbons'  The  Faith  of  Our 
Fathers,  where  frequent  quotations  from  the  Bible  occur. 


12  What  Jesus  Taught 

as  the  source  book  for  religious  belief,  giving  it  the 
indisputable  authority  which  they  had  formerly 
given  to  the  teachings  and  the  officials  of  the  church. 
William  Chillingworth,  a  Protestant  theologian  who 
died  in  1644,  is  the  author  of  the  sentence  that 
summarizes  this  view:  "The  Bible,  the  Bible,  the 
religion  of  Protestants."  It  was  inevitable,  how- 
ever, that  differences  of  opinion  should  arise.  Dif- 
ferent leaders  understood  the  Bible  differently  or 
emphasized  different  doctrines  and  won  adherents 
to  their  views.  Out  of  these  groups  the  various 
Protestant  denominations  developed,  which  now, 
because  they  have  become  strongly  organized  and 
aggressive  and  have  come  to  have  traditions  and  a 
character  of  their  own  that  tends  to  bind  their 
members  to  loyalty,  and,  moreover,  because  in  each 
there  is  constantly  growing  up  an  army  of  children, 
continue  to  exist  long  after  the  doctrinal  disputes 
that  called  them  into  being  have  become  dead 
issues.  In  addition  to  this,  new  sects  every  now 
and  again  spring  up,  seceding  from  the  old  ones, 
under  leaders  who  take  as  a  basis  for  their  claims 
some  part  or  parts  of  the  Bible.  It  is  evident  that 
the  theological  or  proof-text  interest  has  had  and 
has  yet  a  controlling  interest  over  the  Bible-study 
of  many  religious  leaders  and  their  followers. 

4.  Sermon-making. — A  fourth  interest,  and 
related  to  the  preceding,  is  the  homiletic  or  sermon- 
making  interest  felt  by  ministers  and  other  speakers 


Why  People  Study  the  Bible  13 

on  religious  subjects  who  are  accustomed  to  use 
quotations  from  the  Bible  as  summaries  or  sugges- 
tions of  their  addresses,  or  to  lend  authority  to  what 
they  are  going  to  say.  This  interest  may  be  seen  at 
work  in  almost  any  public  religious  service,  though 
preaching  from  texts  is  not  now  so  much  in  vogue 
as  formerly,  having  yielded  considerably  to  the 
theme  or  topic  method.  It  is  still  influential 
enough,  however,  to  cause  speakers  to  seek  Scrip- 
ture passages  that  will  bear,  or  seem  to  bear,  some 
relation  to  the  topic  in  hand.  To  secure  such  refer- 
ence, recourse  is  often  had  to  what  is  called  "  accom- 
modation," that  is,  the  passage  is  treated  as  giving 
or  suggesting  some  meaning  which  in  its  original 
intention  it  clearly  did  not  have.  Dr.  John  A. 
Broadus,  a  southern  theological  educator,  in  warning 
against  this  practice  in  his  textbook  on  homiletics, 
tells  of  an  ignorant  preacher  who  objected  to  the 
way  the  ladies  of  his  congregation  wore  their  hair, 
piled  high  on  their  heads,  and  preached  a  sermon 
against  it  from  Mark  13 :  15,  "Let  him  that  is  upon 
the  housetop  not  come  down,"  leaving  out  the  pre- 
ceding words  and  making  his  text  read,  "Topknot, 
come  down!"  Such  a  searching  of  Scripture  to 
find  passages,  which,  when  isolated  from  their  con- 
text will  seem  to  have  a  meaning  they  do  not  at  all 
have  when  read  along  with  the  words  that  precede 
and  follow  them,  is  not  limited  to  the  ignorant. 
When  Archbishop  Lang  began  the   campaign  of 


14  What  Jesus  Taught 

fellowship  between  Great  Britain  and  the  United 
States  in  March,  1918,  he  took  for  the  text  of  his 
first  sermon  a  part  of  Luke  5:7:  "And  they  beck- 
oned to  their  partners  in  the  other  boat  that  they 
should  come  and  help  them.  And  they  came,"  the 
allusion  of  course  being  to  the  aid  rendered  England 
by  America  in  the  world-war  then  in  progress. 
Though  distinctly  a  professional  interest,  this  use 
of  the  Bible  in  support  of  the  ideas  about  to  be 
propounded  in  a  public  address  is  a  very  gen- 
eral one. 

5.  Bibliomancy. — Another  use  of  the  Bible,  by 
no  means  infrequent,  arises  from  a  belief  in  its 
value  as  an  instrument  of  magic.  Magic  may  be 
described  as  the  power  to  produce  effects,  not  other- 
wise possible,  through  the  possession  and  use  of 
certain  objects  or  formulae.  Thus  among  primi- 
tive peoples  it  has  been  believed  that  to  possess  a 
bit  of  a  person's  hair  or  nails  gave  one  a  power  over 
that  person.  Witch  doctors  and  sorcerers  had 
objects  and  knew  charms  that  were  believed  to  have 
power  to  produce  fortune  or  misfortune  for  the  one 
to  whom  they  chose  to  direct  them.  The  Bible  has 
been  much  used  as  an  instrument  capable  of  pro- 
ducing magic  results.  Among  the  Jews  certain 
passages  were  formerly  believed  to  have  special 
magic  powers.  To  stop  a  child  from  crying,  to 
insure  easy  child-birth,  to  ward  off  danger,  to 
shield  one  from  swallowing  demons  when  drinking 


Why  People  Study  the  Bible  15 

uncovered  water  on  Wednesday  or  Saturday  nights, 
when  Lilith,  the  queen  of  the  demons,  was  abroad 
with  her  myriads,  specific  passages  were  quoted. 
This  practice  of  using  the  Bible  in  a  magical  way 
has  been  given  the  name  "bibliomancy,"  or  Bible- 
magic.  A  more  familiar  modern  example  of  the 
same  type  treats  the  Bible  as  if  it  had  the  power  of 
telling  fortunes,  or  miraculously  giving  advice.  To 
decide  a  question  people  have  opened  the  Bible  at 
random  and  read  the  first  verse  they  happened  to 
see,  taking  it  as  supernatural  guidance.  A  factory 
owner  in  the  East  was  undecided  whether  or  not  he 
should  put  up  a  cottage  by  the  lake  as  a  summer 
home  for  his  family.  He  determined  to  let  the  Bible 
answer,  and,  letting  it  fall  open  as  it  would,  his  eye 
lighted  on  Ps.  127:1,  "Except  the  Lord  build  the 
house,  they  labor  in  vain  that  build  it."  This  he 
took  to  be  an  intimation  that  he  should  not  build 
the  cottage.  A  few  trials,  however,  if  nothing  else, 
will  convince  almost  anyone  that  it  is  only  occasion- 
ally that  the  verse  found  will  have  any  possible 
bearing  on  the  matter  in  hand,  and  that  when  it 
does,  it  is  purely  accidental.  Its  only  value  is 
that  it  sometimes  helps  irresolute  persons  to  reach 
a  decision,  just  as  flipping  a  coin  does.  Though 
the  Bible  has  frequently  been  used  in  a  magical 
way,  it  is  obvious  that  such  a  use  belongs  in  the 
same  class  with  the  ouija  and  planchette  boards, 
and  the  telling  of  fortunes  by  cards. 


1 6  What  Jesus  Taught 

6  Devotion. — Still  a  sixth  influence  that  has 
impelled  people  to  study  the  Bible  has  been  their 
devotional  interest.  Probably  all  persons  pray  at 
some  time  in  their  lives,  but  some  make  prayer  a 
daily  habit.  They  thus  feel  the  need  of  some  book 
as  a  help  in  inducing  a  prayerful  frame  of  mind,  or 
as  a  suggestion  for  framing  a  prayer  into  words. 
No  book  fits  this  need  for  a  prayer  manual  better 
than  certain  parts  of  the  Bible,  especially  the 
Psalms.  Most  of  these  are  in  fact  prayers  used  in 
the  ancient  Hebrew  ritual  of  worship,  as  hymn 
books  and  prayer  books  are  used  in  churches  today. 
There  are  many  other  books  that  are  helpful,  such 
as  the  Discourses  of  Epictetus,  or  Brother  Law- 
rence's The  Practice  oj  the  Presence  of  God,  or  The 
Imitation  of  Christ,  by  Thomas  a  Kempis,  or  Jeremy 
Taylor 's  Holy  Living  and  Holy  Dying,  or  the  books 
of  prayers  by  Robert  Louis  Stevenson  and  Walter 
Rauschenbusch.  Besides  these  there  are  the  noble 
and  ancient  prayers  to  be  found  in  the  Book  of 
Common  Prayer  of  the  Episcopal  church,  and  in 
other  church  rituals.  But  no  book  is  so  commonly 
used  in  a  devotional  way  as  the  Bible,  for  many  of 
the  phrases  and  ideas  of  the  prayer  books  are  them- 
selves borrowings  from  the  Bible.  Where  people 
practice  prayer  habitually  they  are  very  likely  to 
read  or  study  the  Bible,  too. 

7.  Character-building.— There  remains  still  a 
seventh  ground  for  Bible-study  which  perhaps  ex- 


Why  People  Study  the  Bible  17 

plains  more  than  any  other  why  great  numbers  of 
people  study  the  Bible  and  why  organizations  assid- 
uously promote  discussion  groups  and  other  forms 
of  Bible-study.  Their  interest  arises  from  a  recog- 
nition of  the  character-forming  value  of  the  Bible. 
Rightly  studied,  with  a  clear,  open  mind,  with  frank 
discussions,  with  no  biased  approach,  the  Bible 
is  bound  to  react  upon  us  in  such  a  way  as  to 
strengthen  character.  The  reason  for  this  lies  in 
the  nature  of  the  Bible  itself.  Character  is  built  up 
by  numberless  small  decisions  made  in  keeping  with 
an  ideal.  We  get  our  ideals  from  the  lives  of  those 
we  admire,  from  our  own  personal  aspirations,  and 
from  the  inspiration  of  books.  Books  furnish  us 
with  ideals  according  as  they  either  depict  a  hero  or 
heroine  superior  in  some  quality  to  ourselves,  or  as 
they  show  the  working  out  of  some  moral  principle. 
Examples  of  the  first  class  are  Victor  Hugo's  Les 
Miserables,  Thackeray's  Henry  Esmond,  and  Ben- 
jamin Franklin's  Autobiography.  To  the  second 
class  belong  books  like  Edward  Everett  Hale 's  Ten 
Times  One  Is  Ten,  Charles  Reade's  The  Cloister  and 
the  Hearth,  Nathaniel  Hawthorne's  TJie  Scarlet  Let- 
ter, George  Eliot's  Romola,  and  Samuel  Smiles 's 
Self-Help,  and  Character. 

In  both  these  means  through  which  books 
furnish  ideals,  the  literature  of  the  Bible  is  unsur- 
passed. In  such  of  its  books  as  Genesis,  I  and  II 
Samuel,  and  the  Books  of  Kings  and  Nehemiah  we 


i8  What  Jesus  Taught 

have  the  stage  full  of  powerful  and  interesting  char- 
acters, while  in  the  New  Testament  gospels  and 
Acts  we  have  Jesus  and  his  leading  followers,  Peter 
and  Paul.  In  Proverbs,  on  the  other  hand,  and  in 
the  Minor  Prophets,  and  in  the  epistles  of  the  New 
Testament,  we  have  examples  of  the  second  type, 
giving  moral  teaching.  Contact  with  the  great 
characters  and  moral  teachings  of  the  Bible  thus 
aids  us  in  the  establishment  of  firm,  dependable, 
good  character. 

The  effect  of  not  studying  the  Bible :  nullifica- 
tion.— ^Though  for  various  reasons  a  great  many 
people  study  or  use  the  Bible,  there  are  a  great 
many  more  who  for  various  reasons  do  not  read  it. 
One  may  have  lacked  education,  or  have  had  to  do 
hard  work  with  long  hours  that  prevented  much 
reading,  or  one  may  not  have  cared  for  reading,  or 
may  have  grown  up  among  people  who  were  not 
accustomed  to  Bible-study,  or  one  may  have,  on 
the  other  hand,  grown  up  among  those  who  used  the 
Bible  a  great  deal,  but  in  a  way  that  gave  one  an 
aversion  for  it,  or  one  may  have  had  opportunities 
and  have  neglected  them.  It  is  not  so  much  the 
cause  as  the  effect  of  not  studying  the  Bible,  that 
we  are  thinking  of  now.  The  effect  is  that  we  shut 
out  of  our  lives  whatever  contribution  the  Bible 
might  have  made  to  us.  It  is  obvious  that  if  one 
does  not  study  Latin  or  algebra  one  must  get  along 
without  the  contributions  that  those  studies  would 


Why  People  Study  the  Bible  19 

have  made  to  one's  mind.  In  the  same  way,  as 
long  as  our  copy  of  Shakespeare  stands  unopened 
in  the  bookcase  we  have  banished  his  genius  from 
our  lives  as  effectively  as  though  his  works  were  out 
of  print  and  every  copy  lost.  And  the  Bible,  along 
with  the  plays  of  Shakespeare,  and  Dante 's  Inferno, 
and  Milton's  Paradise  Lost,  is  one  of  those  books 
people  praise,  but  do  not  read.'  But  whatever  the 
character  of  these  classics  may  be  it  is  nullified  by 
the  simple  act  of  letting  them  alone.  An  unread 
and  unstudied  Bible  is  therefore  almost  the  same 
as  no  Bible.  It  may  not  be  quite  the  same,  for 
Bible  quotations  and  ideas  may  reach  us  indirectly 
through  other  reading,  church  attendance,  or  in 
other  ways.  Yet  in  general  the  aphorism  holds 
good,  an  unread  Bible  is  the  same  as  no  Bible. 

'  See  the  Literary  Digest  of  September  13,  1919,  p.  34,  for  the 
review  of  an  article  in  the  London  Chronicle  in  which  an  ecclesi- 
astical authority  estimated  the  number  of  intelligent  Bible 
readers  in  England  as  1,350  out  of  a  population  of  forty-five 
millions,  or  roughly,  one  in  twenty  thousand.  This  number  was 
reached  by  estimating  the  number  of  persons,  aside  from  children, 
who  hear  parts  of  the  Bible  read  in  church  on  Sunday  at  five 
milMons.  Of  these  he  thinks  one-tenth  listen  with  sufficient 
attention  to  receive  any  lasting  impression.  Of  this  half-miUion 
he  thinks  one-tenth  read  any  one  book  of  the  Bible  in  a  con- 
secutive way.  Of  this  fifty  thousand  he  reckons  that  only  one- 
tenth  read  with  any  intelligent  appreciation  of  the  setting  of  the 
books  of  the  Bible;  while,  finally,  of  this  five  thousand  he  believes 
not  more  than  1,350  read  with  any  discrimination  between  the 
ethics  and  theology  of  the  Old  Testament  and  those  of  the  New 
Testament. 


20  What  Jesus  Taught 

Let  us  illustrate:  Your  home  town,  what  does  it 

mean  to  you?    It  means  perhaps   a  clean  and 

charming  village,  the  dwelling-place  of  a  thousand 

or  so  good  people;  it  means  the  picturesque  water 

tower,  visible  from  every  surrounding  hilltop;    it 

means  shaded  streets  and  comfortable  homes  and 

white-painted  churches;  it  means  peace  and  quiet; 

it  means    far-reaching  views  over   a    varied   and 

beautiful  landscape;  it  means  harvested  fields  and 

shocked  grain,   worthy  of  an  artist's   brush;    it 

means  nature's  pageant  of  leaf  and  flower  and  cloud 

and  sunset;  it  means  the  stately  procession  of  the 

seasons,  each  with  its  particular  glory;    it  means 

the  quiet  graveyard  where  loved  ones   lie  in  their 

long  sleep;    it  means  home.     That  is  what  your 

home  town  means  to  you.     What  does  it  mean  to  a 

man  in  the  loop  in  Chicago?     Nothing.     It  is  a 

name.    He  has  never  lived  there.     The  town  has 

never  had  a  chance  to  weave  its  spell  about  him. 

He  cannot  feel  its  charm  because  he  has  left  it  alone. 

In  just  the  same  way  the  Bible  must  mean  almost 

nothing  to  a  person  who  does  not  study  it.     By  the 

simple  act  of  letting  it  alone  he  has  made  the  Bible 

largely  null  and  void,   as  if  it  had    never  been 

written.' 

'  We  are  to  be  on  our  guard  against  overstatement  as  to  the 
necessity  of  Bible-study  in  the  building  up  of  character.  We  all 
know  people  of  excellent  character  and  often  prominent  in  church 
or  community  service  who  know  little  about  the  Bible.  More- 
over in  the  Roman  Catholic  church  Bible-study  by  the  laity  is 


Why  People  Study  the  Bible  21 

Recapitulation  and  appeal. — We  have  noted  the 
roots  of  action  as  being  impulse,  habit  or  custom, 
and  reason.  We  have  seen  how  the  discussion- 
group  method  appeals  to  reason.  We  have 
observed  that  superficiality  and  misdirection  have 
vitiated  much  Bible-study.  We  have  discussed 
seven  influences  that  lead  people  to  Bible-study, 
viz.,  their  interest  in  language,  or  history,  or  doc- 
trine, or  sermon-making,  or  in  the  prayer  life,  or  in 
deciding  with  regard  to  the  future,  or  in  the  develop- 
ment of  character.  We  have  reminded  ourselves 
that  the  Bible,  like  other  great  books,  may  for 
various  reasons  be  neglected,  and  the  results  that 
might  have  been  gained  from  it  consequently  lost. 

Let  us  bring  to  our  Bible-study  then  the  clearest, 
hardest  thinking  of  which  our  minds  are  capable 
and,  while  we  shall  remain  reverent  and  devotional, 
avoid  cant.  It  has  been  said,  "One  intelligent 
question  mark  is  worth  all  the  pious  exclamation 
points  ever  written."  Let  us  determine  to  use  our 
minds.  It  is  not  important  that  we  all  think  alike 
in  the  discussion  group,  but  only  that  we  thinlc.     If 


not  encouraged  because  of  the  liability  of  misunderstanding. 
Yet  that  church  has  many  members  of  the  most  admirable 
Christian  character.  While  we  may  well  insist  upon  the 
character-building  value  of  Bible-study  we  ought  not  thereby 
to  animadvert  upon  the  character  of  those  who  do  not  study  it. 
Moreover,  Bible  ideals  of  conduct  and  character  have  become 
so  thoroughly  a  part  of  our  modern  society  that  we  are  frequently 
controlled  by  them  without  recognizing  their  source. 


22  What  Jesus  Taught 

Bible-study  is  religious — and  whatever  is  right  is 
religious — let's  not  make  it  cheap  and  easy. 
When  Araunah  the  Jebusite  offered  David  his  oxen 
and  yokes  and  flails  gratis  to  use  as  a  burnt  sacrifice 
to  Yahveh  (II  Sam.  24:23)  David  said,  "Nay,  but 
I  will  verily  buy  it  of  thee  at  a  price;  neither  will  I 
offer  burnt  offerings  unto  Jehovah  my  God  which 
cost  me  nothing."  That  is  the  spirit  for  discus- 
sion-group Bible-study! 


CHAPTER  II 
WHAT  THE  BIBLE  IS 

Literature:  how  it  arises.— A  literature  may  be 
defined  as  the  expression  in  writing  of  the  thoughts, 
ideals,  laws,  customs,  and  beliefs,  of  a  people,  or  of 
some  section  of  a  people.  Among  the  less  familiar 
racial  or  national  literatures  of  the  present  day- 
there  is  the  Yiddish,  written  in  the  international 
language  spoken  and  read  by  modern  Jews  almost 
the  world  over;'  the  modern  Greek,  of  which  even 
professors  of  Greek  are  likely  to  be  ignorant,  while 
among  the  well-known  modern  national  literatures 
are  those  of  France,  Russia,  and  Germany,  of  Eng- 
land and  America.  From  various  political  and 
religious  groups  in  the  population  literature  springs 
up,  too,  so  that  there  is  a  literature,  for  example,  of 
the  Socialists,  the  Anarchists,  and  the  Mormons. 
Events  of  general  interest  and  importance  to  the 
people  call  out  literature.  The  belief  in  witchcraft 
in  colonial  days,  the  question  of  slavery,  and  of 
states  rights,  which  came  up  later,  the  free  silver 
question  in  1896,  and  the  Great  War  all  called  out 
an  abundant  literature.  Moreover,  leading  men 
who  have  attracted  widespread  attention  have  been 
the  cause  of  many  books  being  written  in  which 

'  Ladino  is  spoken  by  the  Sephardim,  or  Spanish  Jews. 
23 


24  What  Jesus  Taught 

their  views  and  actions  are  discussed,  approved,  or 
condemned,  or  in  which  their  life-story  is  told. 
Often  such  men  themselves  write  books  which  put 
into  print  their  own  ideas  and  reflect  the  thought  of 
the  people  and  the  events  of  the  time.  Thus  we 
may  say  that  literature  is  both  an  outgrowth  of  life 
and  a  mirror  in  which  is  reflected  the  conditions  of 
the  life  from  which  it  arose.  Through  the  preser- 
vation of  their  literatures  we  are  able  to  form  an 
idea  of  the  way  the  ancient  Egyptians,  Romans, 
and  Greeks  lived,  and  what  they  thought  on  various 
subjects.  From  this  historical  point  of  view  all 
the  records  of  the  past  are  valuable,  since  each 
contributes  something  to  our  knowledge  of  what 
men  were  doing  and  thinking  in  those  days.  A 
city  directory  or  a  telephone  book  is  not  very  inter- 
esting in  itself  but  they  would  show  to  an  investi- 
gator a  hundred  years  from  now  the  population  of 
a  city,  the  general  use  of  the  telephone,  and  other 
facts.  So  the  documents  written  on  papyrus^  which 
have  been  found  in  Egypt  buried  in  mummified 
crocodiles,  and  the  memoranda,  scraps  of  accounts, 
schoolboys'  exercises,  letters  from  a  farm  owner 
to  his  foreman,  from  a  son  to  his  mother,  from 
a  negligent  husband  to  his  wife,  thrown  out  as 
waste  paper  and  covered  by  the  wind  with  dry 
sand,  dug  up  nearly  two  thousand  years  later 
and  read  by  us,  help  us  to  see  clearly  how  people 
•  For  examples,  see  George  Milligan,  Greek  Papyri. 


What  the  Bible  Is  25 

were   living  then    and   what  they  were   thinking 
about. 

What  literatures  do  for  us. — It  is  easy  to  see 
that  while  the  literatures  of  the  past  help  us  to 
understand  what  men  thought  and  did  in  the  past 
they  do  not  tell  us,  except  in  an  indirect  way,  what 
we  ought  to  do  and  think  now.  When  we  learn 
what  the  ideas  of  ancient  geographers  were,  with 
their  belief  that  the  rock  of  Gibraltar  marked  the 
edge  of  the  world,  or  those  of  the  ancient  astrono- 
mers, who  thought  of  the  earth  as  the  center  of  the 
universe,  we  do  not  feel  bound  to  trade  off  our  geog- 
raphy and  astronomy  for  theirs.  When  we  read 
in  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas,  a  Christian  document  of 
the  second  century,  that  the  reason  why  Moses  for- 
bade the  hyena  to  be  eaten  was  because  it  was  an 
animal  which  changed  its  sex,  being  male  one  year 
and  female  the  next,  we  do  not  feel  bound  to 
accept  his  startling  zoology,  or  when  we  find  in 
Josephus  (Aftt.  viii.  2)  that  he  had  seen  a  Jew 
named  Eleazar  cure  demonized  people  by  putting 
a  magic  ring  to  their  noses  and  drawing  out 
the  demons  through  their  nostrils,  and  that  at 
Eleazar 's  command  the  demons  would  show  that 
they  had  left  the  man  by  overturning  a  dish  of 
water  set  on  the  ground  a  little  distance  away,  we 
do  not  feel  bound  to  assent  that  Josephus  was 
right  in  his  idea  of  what  took  place.  All  such 
stories  are  an  indication  to  us  of  the  ideas  of  the 


26  What  Jesus  Taught 

time,  but  they  do  not  set  a  mold  into  which  our 
ideas  must  be  run. 

The  Bible  a  literature,  national  and  of  groups. — 

The  Bible  is  a  literature,  or  more  exactly  two  htera- 
tures,  a  larger  and  a  smaller  one.  It  is  the  liter- 
ature of  a  people  first  and  then  the  literature  of  a 
distinct  group  among  that  people.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment is  the  literature  of  a  people,  the  New  Testa- 
ment the  literature  of  a  group,  the  Christians. 
And  in  the  Old  Testament  itself  there  are  books 
that  represent  various  groups  and  tendencies  among 
the  Hebrews,  while  in  the  New  Testament  as  well 
careful  students  find  various  types  of  thinking 
represented.  For  example,  one  notices  quite  easily 
differences  in  thought  and  wording  between  the 
first  three  of  the  Gospels  and  the  fourth,  and 
between  the  Epistle  of  James  and  the  Epistle  to 
the  Hebrews. 

Bible  students  made  a  long  step  forward  when 
they  began  to  think  of  the  Bible  as  a  literature, 
and  to  study  it  in  the  way  that  students  of  other 
literatures  study  theirs.  They  found  the  Bible 
then  a  more  wonderful  book  than  ever  because 
they  saw  it  was  a  book  of  life,  that  it  grew  out  of  life 
and  reflected  the  events,  laws,  customs,  and  beliefs 
of  the  times  when  its  various  books  were  written. 
As  it  took  its  place  among  the  world 's  great  litera- 
tures it  was  seen  to  hold  a  place  of  supreme  impor- 
tance, for  although  the  customs  and  costumes  and 


What  the  Bible  Is  27 

the  political  and  historical  events  in  the  back- 
ground, the  religious  ideas  as  well  as  the  scientific 
concepts,  are  not  those  of  the  twentieth  century, 
it  yet  enables  us  to  reconstruct  the  history  and 
thought  of  the  Hebrew  people  and  of  the  early 
Christians,  while  because  of  its  numerous  noble 
characters  and  its  exalted  moral  teachings  it  has 
extraordinary  influence  in  the  formation  and  estab- 
lishment of  character. 

The  development  of  biblical  ideas. — In  Greek 
literature  one  can  trace  changes  in  ideas.  For 
example,  the  later  Greek  philosophers  felt  dissatis- 
fied with  the  descriptions  of  the  deities  given  in 
the  writings  of  earlier  times.  Their  more  highly 
developed  notions  of  what  a  god  ought  to  be  made 
some  of  the  old  mythological  stories  seem  crude  and 
immoral.  They  therefore  tried  to  find  ways  of 
explaining  the  myths  which  would  relieve  this  diffi- 
culty. In  just  the  same  way  we  find  a  development 
of  the  idea  of  what  sort  of  being  the  Hebrew  deity, 
Jehovah  or  Yahveh  (no  one  knows  now  just  how 
his  name  was  pronounced),  was.  In  the  earlier 
literature  we  find  descriptions  of  him  which  were 
offensive  to  later  and  more  enlightened  thinkers  in 
Israel.  The  prophets  denounce  the  priestly  idea  of 
God's  delight  in  sacrifices  and  ritual.  We  are  able 
then  to  gather  from  the  biblical  literature  not  only 
here  a  fact  of  history  and  there  a  side  light  on  social 
situations,  but  we  can  even  trace  the  progress  and 


28  What  Jesus  Taught 

change  of  ideas  among  the  Hebrews  as  these  are 
reflected  in  the  Old  Testament. 

Naturally,  we  cannot  do  this  to  such  an  extent 
in  the  case  of  the  New  Testament,  for  it  grew  up 
very  rapidly  and  covered  a  much  shorter  space  of 
time.  While  the  Old  Testament  was  at  least  500 
(about  800-167  B.C.)  years  in  taking  its  present 
form  and  covers  a  history  of  some  1,100  years 
(about  1300-167  B.C.),  the  New  Testament  was 
probably  complete  in  a  hundred  years  after 
its  first  book  was  written  (about  54-150  a.d.), 
the  history  it  narrates  covering  a  period  of  no 
more  than  150  years  (about  4  B.C.- 150  a.d.). 
But  even  in  the  New  Testament  careful  stu- 
dents trace  a  development  of  thought  along  some 
lines. 

Forms  of  literature  in  the  Bible. — Literature 
takes  many  forms,  for  example,  stories  of  ancient 
times  made  by  the  writing  up  of  folklore  told  at  first 
only  by  word  of  mouth,  the  writing  of  history,  bas- 
ing it  on  traditions  or  on  earlier  records,  the  pre- 
serving of  statistics,  the  stories  of  the  lives  and 
deeds  of  heroes,  political  and  social  pamphlets, 
important  letters  written  by  prominent  men,  poems 
and  patriotic  and  religious  songs,  argument,  ora- 
tory, philosophy,  collections  of  wise  saws  and  witty 
sayings,  law  books  and  books  of  instruction  for 
priests,  love  stories,  stories  of  hate,  treachery,  theft, 
murder,  fables,  dreams,  stories  of  animals,  ghosts, 


What  the  Bible  Is  29 

witches,  and  the  like,  stories  of  war  and  famous 
battles  and  fights  between  heroes  in  single  combat, 
sermons  of  great  preachers  and  anecdotes  about 
public  men,  and  stories  of  poor  boys  who  rose  to 
greatness.  All  these  types  of  literature  can  be 
found  in  the  Bible.  Even  something  like  the  detec- 
tive story  is  not  lacking  (see,  for  example,  Joshua, 
chap.  7;  I  Kings  3:16-28). 

How  to  read  the  Bible. — The  Bible  is  best 
understood  when  it  is  read  as  other  books,  not  a  few 
lines  at  a  time,  but  in  long  stretches,  a  whole  book 
or  division  of  a  book  at  once.  If  one  has  an  easy 
reading  knowledge  of  some  language  besides  Eng- 
lish it  is  always  interesting  to  read  some  part  of  the 
Bible  at  least  in  that  foreign  language.  But  those 
whose  mother-tongue  was  not  English  ought  to 
read  the  Bible  in  English.  It  is  best  to  read  it  in 
the  American  Standard  Version,  which  is  the  best 
English  translation. 

Resume  of  the  books  of  the  Old  Testament. — 
The  first  six  books  of  the  Bible,  Genesis,  Exodus, 
Leviticus,  Numbers,  Deuteronomy,  and  Joshua 
form  a  connected  narrative.  Leviticus  and  Deuter- 
onomy are  law  books  giving  us  Jewish  legal  enact- 
ments and  religious  ritual,  but  not  carrying  forward 
the  story.  Judges  covers  the  next  period,  and  tells 
the  exploits  of  a  dozen  Jewish  heroes,  among  them 
Samson,  the  Hebrew  Hercules.  Ruth  is  a  pretty 
love  story  of  the  same  period.     When  we  come  to 


30  What  Jesus  Taught 

I  and  II  Samuel  and  I  and  II  Kings,  we  are  in  one 
of  the  richest  narrative  portions  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. One  story  follows  another  in  rapid  succes- 
sion, and  the  characters  are  clear  and  bold.  Here 
are  Samuel,  Eli,  Elijah  and  Elisha,  Saul,  Jona- 
than, David,  Absalom,  Shimei,  Ahithophel,  Uriah, 
Nathan,  Adonijah,  Bathsheba,  Solomon,  Hiram, 
Ahab,  Jezebel,  Jehu,  Naaman,  Rabshakeh,  Joab, 
Abishai,  Benaiah  the  son  of  Jehoiada,  and  many 
others,  each  with  some  striking  and  interesting  role 
to  play  upon  the  crowded  stage.  Next  one  should 
read  Isaiah,  Jeremiah,  and  Ezekiel.  These  books 
are  more  easily  understood  after  one  has  read  the 
ones  just  mentioned.  Isaiah  will  have  special 
charm  for  a  person  interested  in  the  out-of-doors 
because  of  its  great  number  of  references  to  nature. 
In  these  books  some  of  the  finest  passages  of  the 
Bible  occur.  Each  book,  we  are  to  remember,  has 
some  historical  situation  that  it  fits  into.  They 
were  not  written  with  the  idea  of  being  read  two  or 
three  thousand  years  later,  but  have  reference  to 
affairs  going  on  at  the  time  they  were  written.  It  is 
the  same  way  with  the  group  of  twelve  little  books 
called  the  Minor  Prophets.  They  cover,  in  general, 
about  785-330  B.C. 

In  586  B.C.  Jerusalem  was  captured  by  the 
Babylonians,  and  the  Jews  were  removed  from 
Palestine  and  located  in  Babylonia.  This  period 
in   Jewish  history    (586-537   B.C.)    is   called   the 


What  the  Bible  Is  31 

Exile.'  The  books  of  the  Prophets,  who  were  the 
nobler  sort  of  statesmen  and  publicists  of  their  time, 
were  written  before,  during,  and  after  the  Exile. 
Some  cannot  yet  be  accurately  dated.  In  fact,  to 
determine  the  exact  date  of  any  book  in  the  Bible  is 
very  difficult,  and  generally  impossible.  Usually  the 
most  that  can  be  said  is  that  a  given  book  was  prob- 
ably written  about  such  and  such  a  date.  This, 
of  course,  does  not  impair  the  literary  and  religious 
value  of  the  Bible.  No  one  knows,  for  example, 
just  when  the  Iliad  and  Odyssey  were  written,  or 
whether  it  is  quite  certain  that  there  was  a  poet 
Homer  who  put  the  ancient  Greek  sagas  into  writ- 
ten form,  but  that  does  not  take  away  their  value 
for  us. 

There  was  a  class  of  men  among  the  Hebrews 
who  were  the  schoolmasters  and  philosophers  of 
Israel.  They  were  called  ''wise  men"  and  pro- 
duced a  number  of  books  called  Books  of  Wisdom. 
Three  of  these  wisdom  books  have  been  preserved 
in  the  Old  Testament,  viz.,  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes, 
and  Job.  They  are  thoughtful,  philosophical  books 
with  little  of  the  story  element  in  them.  Psalms 
and  Lamentations  and  the  Song  of  Solomon  are 
poems  of  religion,  patriotism,  and  love.  Esther  is 
a  story  of  the  Persian  period  of  the  Exile,  purport- 

'  Members  of  discussion  groups  often  confuse  the  Exile  with 
the  Captivity  in  Egypt  or  with  the  Exodus,  or  with  the  forty 
years'  wandering  in  the  wilderness.  The  Exodus  occurred 
about  1300  B.C. 


32  What  Jesus  Taught 

ing  to  give  the  origin  of  a  Jewish  festival,  Purim, 
still  observed  by  the  Jews.  I  and  II  Chronicles  is 
a  one-sided  history,  based  on  Kings,  with  the  parts 
referring  to  the  Northern  Kingdom  left  out.  Ezra 
tells  of  the  return  of  the  Jews  from  Babylonia  to 
Palestine  about  537  B.C.,  and  their  rebuilding  in 
520  B.C.  of  Solomon's  temple,  built  in  970  b.c.  and 
destroyed  586  B.C.,  while  Nehemiah  carries  the 
story  down  to  about  445  B.C.,  and  tells  of  the 
rebuilding  of  the  wall  around  Jerusalem  and  of 
religious  reforms.  Nehemiah  himself  is  one  of  the 
manliest  characters  in  all  the  Old  Testament. 
Daniel,  it  is  thought,  was  written  about  167  B.C. 
and  is  a  veiled  review  of  Jewish  history,  written  in 
protest  against  the  oppressions  the  Jews  were  suf- 
fering, and  with  a  prediction  of  a  time  when  Yahveh 
would  make  the  Jewish  nation  the  rulers  over  a 
world-empire,  called  the  Kingdom  of  God.  This 
helps  us  to  understand  what  would  be  thought  of 
when  John  the  Baptist  and  Jesus  began  nearly  two 
hundred  years  later  to  rouse  the  people  with  the 
assertion  that  the  time  had  come  for  the  setting  up 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God. 

Old  Testament  Apocrypha. — In  Bible-study  dis- 
cussion groups  the  question  often  comes  up  about 
the  books  left  out  of  our  Protestant  Bibles,  but 
inserted  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Bible,'  and  some- 
times in  the  large  Bibles  which  lie  on  the  pulpits 

'  The  Douay  version,  made  at  Douay,  in  France,  1610. 


What  the  Bible  Is  33 

in  Protestant  churches.  There  are  fourteen  of 
these  books,  and  their  names  are  I  and  II  Esdras, 
Tobit,  Judith,  Additions  to  Esther,  Wisdom  of 
Solomon,  Wisdom  of  Jesus  the  Son  of  Sirach,  Ba- 
ruch,  Song  of  the  Three  Holy  Children,  Susannah, 
Bel  and  the  Dragon,  Prayer  of  Manasseh,  and  I 
and  II  Maccabees.  The  title  given  to  this  collec- 
tion of  books  is  the  Apocrypha,  a  Greek  word  mean- 
ing '^  hidden."  It  is  not  known  just  why  they  were 
so  called.  They  were  not  included  in  the  Hebrew 
Old  Testament,  but  are  in  the  Greek  translation  of 
it  called  the  Septuagint,  made  about  286-100  b.c. 

The  Apocrypha  do  not  contain  as  great  a  variety 
of  literature  as  the  Old  Testament  itself,  but  some 
of  them  are  of  great  value  and  many  very  interest- 
ing. They  furnish  two  examples  of  the  Wisdom 
Literature,  the  Wisdom  of  Solomon,  and  the  Wis- 
dom of  Jesus  the  Son  of  Sirach.  A  copy  of  the 
Apocrypha  is  a  thin  book,  costing  about  seventy- 
five  cents.  It  is  to  be  had  in  both  the  Authorized 
and  the  Revised  Versions,  the  latter  being  prefer- 
able. 

Survey  of  the  New  Testament  books. — A  little 
over  half  of  the  New  Testament  consists  of  four 
gospels,^  or  partial  biographies  of  Jesus,  and  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  a  book  so  called  because  it 
tells  of  the  doings  of  the  apostles.     After  the  eighth 

'  A  term  derived  from  Old  English  godspel  =  God  story  or 
godspell  =  good  story. 


34  What  Jesus  Taught 

chapter  it  is  limited  almost  wholly  to  the  adven- 
tures of  the  great  early  Christian  missionary  Paul, 
and  his  travels  in  Asia  Minor,  Greece,  and  else- 
where. The  rest  of  the  New  Testament,  except  the 
last  book,  is  made  up  of  letters  written  by  or 
ascribed  to  Paul  and  other  prominent  Christian 
leaders  to  churches  and  individuals.  Some  of 
these  are  genuine  correspondence,  others  are  epistles, 
or  "open  letters,"  where  the  writer  adopts  the  form 
of  a  letter,  but  really  addresses  the  public,  that 
is,  Christians  in  general.  The  last  book,  the  Reve- 
lation, like  Daniel  in  the  Old  Testament,  is  written 
in  highly  figurative  language  and  is  a  protest  and 
threat  against  the  enemies  of  the  Christians. 
Neither  Daniel  nor  the  book  of  Revelation  has 
any  value  as  showing  a  plan  of  the  future.  Their 
authors  knew  no  more  of  what  is  going  on  in  the 
world  now  than  we  know  of  what  will  be  going  on 
two  thousand  years  hence. 

In  the  New  Testament  we  find  reflected  the 
ideas,  beliefs,  and  customs  of  the  first  Christians. 
Their  notions  of  the  cause  and  cure  of  disease,  their 
beliefs  that  human  beings  had  conversations  with 
angels  and  demons,  their  faith  that  Jesus  would 
soon  descend  from  the  sky  and  set  up  the  world's 
judgment,  their  rites  of  baptism  and  the  Eucharist, 
their  ecstatic  religious  meetings,  their  agape  or  love 
feast,  which  sometimes  degenerated  into  un-Chris- 
tian  greed  and  drunkenness,  all  appear  on  the  pages 


What  the  Bible  Is  35 

of  the  New  Testament.  It  preserves,  too,  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  as  this  was  told  and  retold  by 
his  followers.  It  shows  also  how  Christianity, 
although  it  started  as  a  little  religious  movement 
among  the  Jewish  people,  spread  out  westward  from 
Palestine  into  Asia  Minor,  Greece,  and  Italy  among 
non-Jewish  peoples.  This  helps  us  to  see  how  by 
313  A.D.,  in  the  time  of  the  Roman  emperor  Con- 
stantine,  Christianity  began  to  be  the  strongest 
religion  in  the  Roman  Empire.  If  the  books  of  the 
New  Testament  had  not  been  preserved  we  should 
have  no  original  source  of  information  as  to  the 
beginnings  of  Christianity,  for  it  was  so  obscure  at 
first  that  we  find  very  little  said  about  it  in  the 
Greek  and  Roman  and  Jewish  writers  of  that  time.^ 
The  New  Testament  Apocrypha. — ^There  are 
also  the  so-called  New  Testament  Apocrypha,  con- 
sisting of  books  relating  to  Jesus  and  the  Christian 
movement,  but  mainly  of  a  later  period,  of  little 
historical  value,  and  not  included  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. There  are  about  thirty  of  these  books,  their 
titles  being  as  follows:  the  Protevangelium  of 
James,  the  Gospel  of  Pseudo-Matthew,  the  Gospel 
of  the  Nativity  of  Mary,  the  History  of  Joseph  the 
Carpenter,  the  Gospel  of  Thomas  (in  three  forms, 
two  Greek,  one  Latin),  the  Arabic  Gospel  of  the 
Saviour's  Infancy,  the  Gospel  of  Nicodemus  (con- 

'  The  few  references  there  are,  are  collected  and  discussed  in 
Case,  The  Historicity  of  Jesus,  pp.  238-70. 


36  What  Jesus  Taught 

sisting  of  the  Acts  of  Pilate  in  two  Greek  and  one 
Latin  form  and  the  Descent  of  Christ  into  Hell,  in 
two  Latin  and  one  Greek  form) ,  the  Letter  of  Pon- 
tius Pilate,  the  Report  of  Pilate,  the  Paradosis  of 
Pilate,  the  Death  of  Pilate,  the  Narrative  of  Joseph, 
the  Avenging  of  the  Saviour,  the  Acts  of  Peter  and 
Paul,  the  Acts  of  Paul  and  Thecla,  the  Acts  of 
Barnabas,  the  Acts  of  Philip,  the  Acts  of  Philip  in 
Hellas,  the  Acts  of  Andrew,  the  Acts  of  Andrew 
and  Matthias,  the  Acts  of  Matthew,  the  Acts  of 
.Thomas,  the  Consummation  of  Thomas,  the  Mar- 
tyrdom of  Bartholomew,  the  Acts  of  Thaddaeus, 
the  Acts  of  John,  the  Apocalypse  of  Moses,  the 
Apocalypse  of  Esdras,  the  Apocalypse  of  Paul,  the 
Apocalypse  of  John,  and  the  Assumption  of  Mary.' 
In  general  in  these  books  the  miraculous  element 
plays  an  even  larger  role  than  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  the  books  purport  to  give  information 
about  things  on  which  the  New  Testament  itself  is 
silent.  Thus  while  in  the  New  Testament  Uttle  is 
told  about  the  boyhood  of  Jesus,  and  no  details  are 
given  of  his  life  from  eighteen  to  thirty  years  of  age, 
in  the  apocryphal  books  of  the  New  Testament 
numerous  stories  are  told  of  Jesus'  childhood;  for 
example,  of  the  wonderful  things  he  did,  of  his  mak- 
ing clay  sparrows  fly,  of  his  stretching  tables  and 

"  These  are  collected  and  translated  into  English  in  the 
Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  VIII,  349-598.  Other  examples  also  are 
extant,  such  as  the  Gospel  of  Peter  and  the  Apocalypse  of  Peter. 


What  the  Bible  Is  37 

seats  to  the  right  size  when  Joseph,  who  was  a  poor 
workman,  made  them  too  small,  of  the  mischief  he 
played  in  a  dyer 's  shop  and  how  he  made  the  cloths 
all  the  right  color  after  he  had  thrown  them  into 
the  furnace,  how  he  charmed  a  snake  that  had 
bitten  a  boy,  and  how  he  struck  boys  dead  who  did 
anything  to  displease  him,  and  so  on.  The  New 
Testament  Apocrypha  in  general  show  the  working 
of  religious  imagination,  and  our  picture  of  Jesus 
has  gained  rather  than  lost  by  their  omission  from 
the  New  Testament.  They  are  valuable  in  this 
that  they  throw  light  backward  upon  the  New 
Testament  by  showing  the  credulity  and  miracle- 
making  facility  of  the  age.  They  show,  too,  the 
natural  desire  for  information  upon  features  of 
Jesus'  life  which  the  canonical  gospels  do  not 
satisfy.  Bible-students  should  acquaint  them- 
selves with  both  the  Apocr)^ha  of  the  Old  Testa- 
ment and  those  of  the  New. 

The  Apostolic  Fathers. — Of  greater  value  than 
the  New  Testament  Apocrypha  is  the  little  collec- 
tion of  ten  early  Christian  productions  known  as  the 
Works  of  the  Apostolic  Fathers,  or  more  briefly  as 
the  Apostolic  Fathers.  These  are  the  First  and 
Second  Epistle  of  Clement,  the  Epistle  of  Barnabas, 
some  fragments  of  the  writings  of  Papias,  the 
Epistle  to  Diognetus,  the  Epistle  of  Ignatius,  the 
Epistle  of  Polycarp,  the  Martyrdom  of  Polycarp, 
the  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  and  the  Teaching  of  the 


38  What  Jesus  Taught 

Twelve  Apostles.  These  are  largely  in  the  style  of 
the  New  Testament  and  in  them  may  be  traced  the 
progress  of  Christian  thought,  customs,  and  organ- 
ization in  the  second  century.  With  the  exception 
of  a  part  of  the  Shepherd  of  Hermas,  the  works  of 
the  Apostolic  Fathers  were  written  in  Greek.  They 
are  available,  however,  in  English  translation  and 
should  be  read  by  all  who  wish  to  be  acquainted 
with  the  whole  field  of  early  Christian  literature.^ 
Recapitulation. — We  have  noted  what  is  meant 
by  the  term  literature;  we  have  seen  that  the  Bible 
is  a  Hterature;  we  have  listed  the  various  types  of 
literature  it  contains;  we  have  observed  the  main 
divisions  into  which  it  falls,  and  the  periods  covered; 
we  have  seen  that  there  is  an  apocryphal  or  non- 
canonical  literature  both  of  the  Old  and  the  New 
Testaments;  we  have  discussed  the  interest  and 
value  of  this  Jewish  and  Christian  literature  out- 
side the  Bible.  The  most  helpful  and  far-reaching 
principle  one  can  get  hold  of  in  regard  to  the  Bible  is 
that  it  is  a  literature,  and  as  a  literature  it  tells  us 
what  other  people  of  other  times  have  done  and 
thought,  but  not  what  we  must  think  and  do. 
That  is  something  we  have  to  find  out  for  ourselves. 
Always,  to  be  sure,  we  are  to  remember  that  it  has 
in  it  the  highest  and  best  in  religious  thought  and  in 

'  See  the  Ante-Nicene  Fathers,  I,  1-149.  This  collection 
covers  the  literature  produced  by  Christianity  during  the  period 
following  the  New  Testament  writers  down  to  325  a.d.  Of  this 
literature  the  Apostolic  Fathers  form  a  small  part. 


What  the  Bible  Is  39 

inspiring  characters.  Being  a  reflection  of  the  life 
in  which  it  arose,  however,  it  has  a  considerable 
element  that  is  not  up  to  modern  ideas  in  science  or 
ideals  in  religion.  It  is  to  be  used,  therefore,  dis- 
criminatingly and  not  with  a  blanket  assumption 
of  infallibility. 

Textual  criticism. — The  story  of  how  the  Bible 
was  preserved,  how  it  passed  from  one  language 
into  another,  is  one  of  fascinating  interest.  It  is, 
of  course,  largely  the  same  story  as  that  of  any 
ancient  literature  which  has  been  preserved  and 
translated  so  that  we  can  read  it  now  in  English. 
The  original,  autograph  manuscripts  of  Homer's 
Iliad,  or  of  the  works  of  Plato  and  Aristotle  have 
been  lost  for  centuries.  So  have  those  of  the 
Psalmists  and  Isaiah,  of  the  evangelists  and  Paul. 
Their  works  have  been  preserved  by  copying.  The 
oldest  manuscript  of  the  New  Testament  is  itself  a 
copy  made  three  or  four  hundred  years  after  the 
books  of  the  New  Testament  were  written,  and 
probably  long  after  the  original  writings  themselves 
had  been  lost  or  worn  out.  Thus  we  have  no  way 
of  correcting  the  copies  by  the  original.  Scholars 
have,  however,  compared  the  manuscript  copies 
with  one  another  and  by  this  means  have  deter- 
mined as  exactly  as  possible  what  the  original 
wording  was.  As  old  manuscripts  have  been  found 
from  time  to  time,  they  have  been  examined  with 
minute   care   and   compared   with   those   already 


40  What  Jesus  Taught 

known.  This  study  of  ancient  manuscripts  is  a 
science  in  itself.  Its  technical  name  is  textual 
criticism,  or  the  study  of  the  text  (for  "criticism" 
means  study),  because  its  aim  is  to  recover  the 
original  wording  or  text  of  the  books  of  the  Old 
and  the  New  Testaments.  Textual  criticism  is  a 
science  that  deals  not  alone  with  the  biblical  books. 
There  is  a  textual  criticism  of  all  ancient  authors. 
The  text  of  Caesar  which  is  read  in  high  school  has 
been  determined  in  the  same  way. 

Historical  criticism. — In  addition  to  textual 
criticism,  or  the  study  of  the  Hebrew  and  Greek 
texts  of  the  Bible,  there  is  historical  criticism,  which 
attempts  to  discover  the  history  that  lies  back  of 
the  original  writings  themselves,  and  the  motives 
that  controlled  their  authors.  About  thirty  years 
ago  this  kind  of  study  was  called  "higher  criticism," 
to  distinguish  it  from  the  lower  or  preparatory 
textual  criticism.'  We  may  say  that  it  tries  to 
trace  the  history  of  the  books  of  the  Bible  higher, 
that  is,  beyond  the  words  themselves  to  the  situa- 
tion that  called  forth  the  book,  to  the  author's 
motive  in  writing  it,  and  to  the  source  of  the  ideas 
reflected  in  the  book.  The  term  "higher  criticism " 
is  practically  obsolete  now,  and  is  used  generally 
only  in  a  jocular  way,  or  by  those  who  are  ignorant 
of  it  or  hostile  to  it.     The  correct  name  of  this 

'  Cf.  Nash,  A  History  of  the  Higher  Criticism  of  the  New 
Testament,  pp.  12-13. 


What  the  Bible  Is  41 

science  is  "the  historical  criticism  [or  study]  of  the 
Bible."  Those  who  practice  historical  criticism 
are  said  to  use  the  historical  method.  Upon  these 
two  sciences,  textual  criticism  and  historical  criti- 
cism, has  been  based  all  the  progress  made  in  recent 
years  in  scientific  Bible-study.  Through  them  the 
field  of  religion  is  made  one  with  the  other  fields  of 
knowledge  to  which  the  various  sciences  are  devoted 
and  through  them  religion  and  the  Bible  are 
made  more  intelligible  and  tenable  to  a  modern 
educated  man. 

Sketch  of  the  history  of  Bible  translation. — The 
first  translation  of  the  Old  Testament  from  its 
original  Hebrew  and  Aramaic  was  made  about  286- 
100  B.C.,  when  it  was  translated  into  Greek.  This 
version  is  called  the  Septuagint  (Latin  septuaginta, 
seventy) ,  because  it  was  said  to  have  been  made  by 
seventy  translators.  Next  it  was  translated  into 
Syriac,  probably  before  the  Christian  Era.  Then 
the  Old  and  the  New  Testaments  were  both  trans- 
lated into  Latin  and  Coptic,  the  language  of  North- 
ern Africa.  About  400  a.d.  Jerome  made  a  trans- 
lation of  the  whole  Bible  into  Latin,  basing  his 
work  on  earher  translations  into  that  language. 
Jerome's  version  is  called  the  Vulgate,  because  it 
came  into  general  use  (Latin  vulgus,  the  public). 
Various  translations  of  the  Bible  into  EngUsh  were 
made  before  161 1,  when  the  King  James  Version 
was  made.     Much  of  the  EngUsh  in  this  is  quaint 


42  What  Jesus  Taught 

and  old-fashioned  now;  moreover,  better  Greek 
manuscripts  have  meanwhile  been  found,  so  that 
in  1 88 1  a  revision  was  made  by  a  company  of  Eng- 
lish and  American  scholars  chosen  for  that  task. 
The  American  Revised  Version  incorporates 
changes  recommended  by  the  American  revisers 
and  is  probably  the  best  version  of  the  Bible  in 
EngUsh  yet  made.'  Of  course  the  Bible  has  been 
translated  into  all  other  modern  languages  as  well. 
The  Bible's  real  value. — The  dictaphone  is  a 
machine  into  which  business  men  sometimes  dic- 
tate their  letters.  After  words  have  been  spoken 
into  it,  it  will  faithfully  reproduce  the  words  any 
number  of  times.  The  Bible  is  like  that.  Into  it 
the  great  souls  of  Israel  and  of  early  Christianity 
poured  their  message,  and  with  allowance  made  for 
the  vicissitudes  of  copying  and  editing,  it  faithfully 
repeats  that  message  even  yet.  But  the  Bible  has 
often  been  thought  of  as  if  it  were  itself  the  speaker 
and  its  readers  were  the  dictaphone,  so  that  what- 
ever it  said  they  must  say,  whatever  it  thought 
they  must  think.  The  reader  of  the  Bible  is  not  a 
dictaphone  to  duplicate  the  thought  processes  of 
ages  past,  nor  is  he  the  stenographer  who  must  copy 
what  the  dictaphone  says:    he  is  rather  another 

'  A  number  of  efforts  have  been  made  to  improve  upon 
this  version,  the  latest  being  a  version  of  the  Old  Testament 
issued  by  the  Jewish  Publication  Society  of  Philadelphia.  Other 
modern  versions  of  the  New  Testament  are  Moffatt's,  Wey- 
mouth's, and  the  Twentieth  Century  New  Testament. 


What  the  Bible  Is  43 

business  man  who  must  do  his  own  thinking  and 
speak  his  own  message  in  the  language  and  through 
the  ideas  of  his  own  time.  The  principle  that  the 
Bible  was  given  as  a  mold  for  the  minds  of  men, 
though  producing  some  good  results,  has  wrought 
great  damage  to  religion.  It  is  the  wedge  that  has 
caused  every  denominational  split;  it  is  used  to 
justify  the  existence  of  every  new  sect.  The  hope 
of  American  Protestant  Christianity  is  that  people 
will  finally  become  so  clear  as  to  reahties  and 
values  that  the  spectacle  of  four  churches  in  an 
American  town  of  eight  hundred  inhabitants  will 
be  forever  at  an  end.  One  great  helping  factor  in 
the  establishment  of  community  churches  in  the 
place  of  denominational  ones  will  be  the  recognition 
of  the  Bible  as  a  literature,  ancient,  noble,  inspiring, 
in  many  ways  unsurpassed,  but  not  to  be  thought 
of  as  intended  to  relieve  us  from  the  necessity  of 
thinking  for  ourselves.  To  regard  the  Bible  in 
that  way  is  both  to  misuse  it  and  to  misunderstand 
the  task  God  has  set  before  us  in  the  modern  world. 


CHAPTER  III 
THE  WORLD  JESUS  LIVED  IN 

A  sketch  of  Palestine's  history. — To  modern 
Christians  perhaps  the  most  interesting  thing  about 
Palestine  is  that  Jesus  Hved  there.  But  besides 
this,  it  has  a  fascinating  history.  As  early  as  1600 
B.C.  it  was  the  home  of  peoples  having  an  advanced 
civilization.  Slowly  conquered  by  the  Hebrews,  it 
came  to  be  the  fatherland  of  the  Jew.  In  the  course 
of  centuries  it  has  been  swept  again  and  again  by 
batthng  armies.  In  721  B.C.  the  northern  division 
of  the  Hebrew  kingdom,  which  had  stood  for  over 
two  hundred  years,  was  conquered  by  the  Assyr- 
ians, the  capital,  Samaria,  destroyed,  and  the  popu- 
lation, consisting  of  ten  of  the  twelve  tribes, 
deported  to  Mesopotamia.  Interesting  legends 
are  told  of  these  lost  ten  tribes,  but  no  one  knows 
what  became  of  them.  Probably  they  were 
absorbed  by  the  Assyrians.  The  Southern  King- 
dom stood  for  one  hundred  and  thirty-five  years 
more,  but  was  finally  captured  in  586  B.C.  by  the 
Babylonians.  In  the  siege  the  Temple,  which  had 
been  built  by  Solomon  about  930  B.C.,  was  de- 
stroyed. The  people  were  transplanted  to  Baby- 
lonia. Fifty  years  later,  the  Babylonian  empire 
had  fallen,  and  Cyrus,  its  conqueror,  permitted  the 

44 


The  World  Jesus  Lived  In  45 

Jews  to  return  to  Palestine.  Many  preferred  to 
stay  in  Babylon,  their  new  home,  but  enough 
returned  to  build  the  second  Temple,  and  later  to 
rebuild  the  city  walls.  The  Jews  now  remained  for 
about  one  hundred  and  twenty  years  subject  to 
Persia.  When  Alexander  the  Great  conquered  the 
then  known  world,  Palestine,  in  332  B.C.,  became 
subject  to  Macedonia.  Later  it  was  controlled  by 
Syria.  From  175-63  B.C.  it  was  an  independent 
state  with  a  government  of  its  own.  At  the  time 
of  Jesus '  birth  it  had  been  for  two  generations  sub- 
ject to  Rome.  The  third  Temple,  built  by  Herod 
the  Great  (begun  20  B.C.,  but  not  completed  till 
62  A.D.)  had  replaced  the  second  Temple  and  is 
the  one  referred  to  occasionally  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment. It  was  destroyed  in  70  a.d.  at  the  capture  of 
Jerusalem  by  Titus. 

Significance  of  Palestine. — Recent  international 
events  make  it  easier  for  us  to  see  how  Palestine 
could  be  thus  passed  around  from  one  "power"  to 
another.  About  70  a.d.  the  Jews  made  a  desperate 
revolt  against  Rome,  but  were  defeated  and  Jeru- 
salem destroyed.  In  135  a.d.  under  a  leader  named 
Bar-Cochba  they  again  attempted  to  free  them- 
selves from  the  Roman  rule,  but  were  completely 
crushed.  When  Rome  had  fallen  and  Mohammed- 
anism, originating  in  Arabia,  was  sweeping  a  large 
part  of  the  Mediterranean  world,  Palestine  came 
under  a  new  master,  the  Turk.     It  remained  in  his 


46  What  Jesus  Taught 

power,  with  the  exception  of  short  periods  during 
the  Crusades,  till  19 18  when  various  parts  of  the 
country  were  captured  by  the  British. 

Though  Palestine  has  always  been  small,  it  has 
never  been  insignificant.  Greece,  too,  is  a  little 
country,  the  size  of  West  Virginia,  but  it  has  put 
into  history  such  great  names  as  Homer,  Demos- 
thenes, Socrates,  Plato,  Aristotle,  Pericles,  and 
many  others.  Palestine,  also,  has  bred  men  whose 
names  are  well  known  far  beyond  its  confines,  Moses, 
Solomon,  EHjah,  Isaiah,  Peter,  Paul,  and  many  more. 

The  life  of  Palestine  as  seen  in  the  New  Testa- 
ment.— It  was  in  this  Httle,  alert,  oriental  state  that 
had  known  so  many  political  changes  that  Jesus 
was  born.  It  is  impressive  to  think  that  in  reading 
the  New  Testament  we  are  reading  the  translation 
of  words  that  were  written  in  and  near  that  little 
country  eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  It  faithfully 
represents  the  life  of  Palestine  in  the  time  of  Jesus, 
though  not  in  detail,  for  the  writers  refer  to 
political  and  social  conditions  only  incidentally,  as 
these  bear  on  their  message.  Everywhere,  how- 
ever, there  is  the  background  of  Roman  power,  the 
emperor,  the  provincial  governors,  the  soldiery, 
everywhere  the  Jewish  rehgion,  the  Temple,  the 
sects,  Scribe  and  Pharisee,  Sadducee,  Essene,  and 
Zealot,  the  curious  Jewish  customs  and  meticulous 
ceremonies,  everywhere  there  is  the  open,  out-door, 
sunny  life  of  an  oriental  country. 


The  World  Jesus  Lived  In  47 

The  world  of  Jesus. — But  a  man's  world  is  made 
up,  not  of  the  whole  complex  of  things  about  him, 
but  of  the  things  that  seize  his  thought.  What 
does  not  secure  his  attention  does  not  exist  for  him, 
while  the  things  on  which  his  thought  dwells,  even 
though  they  have  no  external  existence,  are  realities 
to  him.'.  The  influences  that  shape  character  may 
be  classified  under  the  headings  of  heredity, 
environment,  and  personal  acts  and  decisions. 
Everything  that  affects  a  person's  character  and 
life  come  from  one  of  these  three.  Often  the  last 
overcomes  the  other  two,  and  a  man  who  has  been 
unfortunate  in  his  birth  or  environment  yet  lives 
his  life  nobly.  Environments  vary  and  people 
react  differently  to  the  same  environment.  "Two 
men  looked  through  prison  bars;  One  saw  mud,  the 

'  Members  of  the  discussion  group  should  agree  in  advance 
upon  the  topic  each  will  give  attention  to,  and  search  the  gospels 
to  find  instances.  Thus  one  member  may  take  the  references  to 
nature  in  Mark,  another  in  Matthew,  a  third  in  Luke.  In  the 
same  way  search  may  be  made  for  allusions  to  various  kinds  of 
work  and  business,  etc.,  mentioned  in  the  gospels.  Remember  the 
important  thing  is  that  we  shall  study  deeply  the  New  Testa- 
ment itself.  It  is  the  lasting  literature.  All  commentaries  and 
handbooks  upon  it  have  proved  of  comparatively  temporary 
significance,  but  the  New  Testament  has  stood  for  centuries. 
The  best  help  is  one  that  piques  our  curiosity,  provokes 
resistance,  and  leads  us  to  examine  the  New  Testament  for  our- 
selves. Do  not  imagine  that  because  another  person  does  not 
agree  with  you  he  is  not  helping  you,  or  you  him.  You  are  each 
whetting  the  other's  mind.  Think  hard,  speak  modestly  but 
candidly,  and  above  all,  keep  smiling. 


48  What  Jesus  Taught 

other  stars."  We  propose  to  gather  the  hints 
scattered  through  the  gospels  as  to  what  made  up 
Jesus'  environment,  the  world  he  lived  in.  We 
find  references  to  show  that  his  world  was  made 
up  of: 

1.  Nature:  sea,  mountains,  birds,  plants, 
flowers,  lightning,  storm. 

2.  Family  relationships:  father,  mother,  broth- 
ers, sisters  (there  were  nine  in  Jesus'  family). 

3.  Kinds  of  work  and  business :  farming,  fishing, 
clerical  work,  mercantile  business,  building,  car- 
pentry, household  work. 

4.  Social  classes:  political  officials,  religious 
sects  and  teachers,  soldiers,  disciples,  friends, 
enemies,  rich  men,  beggars,  the  sick,  women,  the 
public. 

5.  Religious  institutions:  the  Mosaic  Law,  the 
Old  Testament,  the  Sabbath,  the  Temple,  syna- 
gogues. 

6.  Social  customs:  meals,  weddings,  footwash- 
ing,  feasts,  slavery,  divorce. 

7.  Commonplace  things:  yeast,  salt,  lamps, 
sheep,  dogs,  donkeys,  chickens,  camels,  insects, 
country,  villages,  cities,  houses,  a  garden. 

8.  Human  experiences:  war,  debt,  marriage, 
poverty,  sickness,  weariness,  hunger,  pain,  death, 
mourning,  burial. 

9.  Supernatural  agencies :  angels,  demons,  Satan, 
God,  miracles. 


The  World  Jesus  Lived  In  49 

Present-day  thinking  as  regards  supernatural 
evil  agencies. — In  the  discussion  of  the  ninth  point, 
concerning  the  evidence  as  to  angels,  demons,  and 
Satan,  some  questions  always  come  up  on  which 
minds  work  differently.  To  many  Christians 
angels,  demons,  and  even  Satan  have  become 
unreal.  To  refer  epilepsy,  or  insanity,  or  loss  of 
speech,  or  any  other  disease  to  demon-possession 
would  seem  to  them  a  retrogression  to  the  primitive 
ideas  of  savages  who  employ  witch  doctors  to  call 
forth  the  evil  spirits  from  the  sick.  They  do  not 
feel  the  necessity  of  assuming  the  existence  of  these 
supernatural  agencies  as  they  do  feel  the  necessity 
of  assuming  the  existence  of  God.  Observation, 
reading,  education,  reflection,  and  experience  have 
led  them  to  believe  in  God ;  they  are  not  led  to  the 
same  conclusion  about  angels,  demons,  and  Satan. 
They  are  inclined  to  class  these  with  other  creatures 
of  the  imagination,  for  example,  the  Irish  banshees, 
the  Scotch  fairies,  the  Puritan  witches,  the  negro 
voodoo  and  "hants."  They  know  that  the  beUef 
in  a  thing,  however  vital  it  may  have  been  to  those 
who  held  that  belief,  is  no  proof  that  that  thing  ever 
actually  existed.  The  ancient  Greeks,  for  example, 
had  a  complex  system  of  gods  and  goddesses  with 
stories  about  them  worked  out  in  elaborate  detail, 
yet  no  one  believes  now  that  a  single  one  of  those 
gods  and  goddesses  ever  existed  outside  the  people's 
imagination.     Even  the  present-day  Greeks  them- 


50  What  Jesus  Taught 

selves,  though  they  are  proud  of  this  wonderful 
past  and  its  Hterature,  do  not  think  of  Zeus,  Hera, 
Heracles,  Apollo,  Aphrodite,  and  all  the  rest  as 
having  ever  really  existed.  That  is,  they  did  not 
exist  as  the  mountains,  rivers,  seas,  etc.,  connected 
with  their  adventures  existed.  They  were  made 
by  thinking,  and  they  existed  only  in  thought. 
Epictetus,  a  Stoic  philosopher  of  the  first  century, 
remarks  that  things  appear  to  our  minds  in  four 
ways: 

1.  They  exist  and  appear  to  exist. 

2.  They  do  not  exist,  and  do  not  appear  to  exist. 

3.  They  exist,  but  do  not  appear  to  exist. 

4.  They  do  not  exist,  but  appear  to  exist. 
Many  thoughtful  and  rehgious  people  would  now 
put  angels,  demons,  and  Satan  under  number  2 
above,  though  they  would  acknowledge  that  for 
ancient  peoples  they  belonged  under  number  4,  and 
really  seemed  to  them  to  belong  under  number  i. 

The  view  of  early  Christian  times.— ^It  is  not 
difficult  to  find  evidence  outside  the  New  Testa- 
ment as  to  what  the  Jewish  people  were  thinking 
about  demons  in  those  days.  Josephus  was  writ- 
ing his  history  about  the  same  time  the  books  of 
the  New  Testament  were  being  written.  In  the 
following  passage  from  the  seventh  book  of  his 
Jewish  War  he  tells  both  what  demons  were  and 
how  people  who  had  demons  could  be  cured  by  the 
use  of  the  root  of  a  certain  tree.     He  tells  how  the 


The  World  Jesus  Lived  In  51 

tree  looked,  how  hard  it  was  to  get  the  root  of  it, 
what  the  power  of  the  root  was,  and  what  demons 
themselves  are,  as  follows: 

Its  color  is  like  to  that  of  flame,  and  toward  the  evening 
it  sends  out  a  certain  ray  like  lightning;  it  is  not  easily 
taken  by  such  as  would  do  it,  but  recedes  from  their  hands, 
nor  will  yield  itself  to  be  taken  quietly  until  either  the  urine 
of  a  woman,  or  blood,  be  poured  upon  it;  nay,  even  then 
it  is  certain  death  to  those  that  touch  it,  unless  anyone 
take  and  hang  the  root  itself  down  from  his  hand,  and  so 
carry  it  away.  It  may  also  be  taken  in  another  way  with- 
out danger,  which  is  this:  they  dig  a  trench  quite  round 
about  it  till  the  hidden  part  of  the  root  be  very  small,  they 
then  tie  a  dog  to  it,  and  when  the  dog  tries  hard  to  follow 
him  that  tied  him,  this  root  is  easily  plucked  up,  but  the 
dog  dies  immediately,  as  if  it  were  instead  of  the  man  that 
would  take  the  plant  away;  nor  after  this  need  anyone  be 
afraid  of  taking  it  into  his  hands.  Yet  after  all  this  pains 
in  getting,  it  is  only  valuable  on  account  of  one  virtue  it 
hath,  that  if  it  be  only  brought  to  sick  persons,  it  quickly 
drives  away  those  called  demons,  which  are  no  other  than 
the  spirits  of  the  wicked,  that  enter  into  men  that  are 
alive  and  kill  them  unless  they  can  obtain  some  help  against 
them  {War,  vii.  6). 

Josephus  also  tells  in  his  Antiquities  of  the  Jews, 
Book  viii,  of  Eleazar,  a  Jew,  who  cured  those  who 
had  demons  by  means  of  a  ring.  He  would  put  this 
ring  to  the  sick  man's  nose  and  draw  the  demon 
out  through  his  nostrils.  In  the  same  passage 
Josephus  says  that  Solomon  learned  the  science  of 
casting  out  demons  and  that  he  composed  incanta- 
tions to  be  used  for  that  purpose.     Some  of  the 


52  What  Jesus  Taught 

incantations  thus  used  by  Jewish  exorcists  have 
been  preserved  to  the  present  day.' 

Types  of  reaction  to  the  topic  "demons." — We 
who  are  loyal  to  Jesus  Christ  and  wish  to  win  men 
to  his  plan  of  Kfe  are  bound  to  face  the  contrast 
between  the  large  place  which  the  gospels  give  to 
angels,  demons,  and  Satan  in  the  life  of  Jesus,  and 
the  small  place  which  these  commonly  have  in  the 
lives  of  even  his  most  cordial  admirers  today. 
Many  young  people  have  wished  for  hght  on  this 
question  which  neither  the  sermon  nor  the  Sunday 
school  has  given  them. 

In  discussion  men  generally  sort  out  as  follows: 

1.  Some  say  that  Jesus  knew  that  demons,  etc., 
did  not  exist.  In  his  own  mind  he  put  them  under 
number  2  of  Epictetus'  classification.  But  he 
knew  that  the  people  all  about  him  did  believe  in 
them,  and  he  accommodated  himself  to  their  views 
and  spoke  and  acted  as  if  he  shared  their  belief. 

2.  Some  say  that  Jesus  knew  that  demons,  etc., 
did  not  exist,  and  he  made  no  pretense  at  believing 
in  them.  All  that  the  gospels  tell  us  about  him 
which  would  make  us  think  he  did,  comes  not  from 
Jesus,  but  from  the  writers  of  the  gospels.  That 
is,  they  did  believe  in  demons,  etc.,  and  they  read 
back  their  own  ideas  into  Jesus '  Hfe  and  put  into  his 
mouth  such  words  as  they  thought  he  would  have 

'  For  the  text  of  one  found  in  Africa  dating  from  the  third 
century  see  Blau,  Das  alt-jiidische  Zauberwesen,  pp.  97  ff. 


The  World  Jesus  Lived  In  53 

spoken  and  such  deeds  as  they  thought  he  would 
have  done. 

3.  Some  say  that  Jesus  actually  did  beheve  in 
demons,  etc.,  that  in  this  respect  he  shared  the 
ideas  of  the  people  about  him.  Of  those  who  hold 
this  view  there  are  two  classes:  (a)  Those  who 
themselves  believe  that  demons,  etc.,  actually 
exist,  (b)  Those  who  themselves  do  not  believe 
that  demons,  etc.,  exist. 

Those  who  place  themselves  in  class  (a)  usually 
do  so  because  of  a  supposed  loyalty  to  Jesus  and 
the  New  Testament.  Those  who  place  themselves 
in  class  (b)  feel  that  they  are  equally  loyal  to  Jesus, 
and  to  the  New  Testament.  They  think  that 
loyalty  to  Jesus  does  not  involve  a  copying  of  all 
the  details  of  his  thought  any  more  than  it  means  a 
duplicating  of  his  language  or  his  dress.  They 
hold  that  to  be  loyal  to  Jesus  is  to  revere  his  charac- 
ter and  live  on  his  principle.' 

Views  about  miracles. — It  is  much  the  same 
with  the  subject  of  miracles.  Opinions  will  differ, 
and  the  leader  and  the  members  of  the  group  should 
be  prepared  both  to  expect  difference  and  to  respect 
it.  The  conviction  that  the  universe  in  all  its  parts 
acts  and  reacts  in  ways  of  unvarying  regularity, 
which  is  a  by-product  of  modern  scientific  educa- 
tion, has  not  yet  reached  by  any  means  all  persons. 

'  For  fuller  discussion  see  the  author's  article,  "Did  Jesus 
Believe  in  Demons?"  Biblical  World,  July,  1920,  pp.  371-77. 


54  What  Jesus  Taught 

There  may  be — and  should  be— some  in  the  dis- 
cussion group  who  have  not  studied  in  high  school 
or  college  and  consequently  have  not  had  the  incen- 
tive to  readjustment.  On  the  other  hand,  some 
who  have  had  scientific  training  have  not  been  led 
to  see  its  impKcations,  or  have  managed  to  keep 
their  scientific  and  their  rehgious  thinking  apart, 
in  separate  compartments  of  the  brain,  as  it  were, 
and  so  have  not  allowed  their  culture  to  modify 
their  religious  views.  Others,  again,  have  been 
systematically  trained  to  suspicion  and  opposition 
to  scientific  views  and  imagine  that  their  adoption 
means  the  loss  of  personal  rehgion  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  Christianity. 

With  such  antecedent  experiences,  difference 
of  opinion  is  inevitable.  Some  will  say  that  no 
miracle  ever  happened.  Others  will  argue  that  all 
things  are  possible  with  God.  Others  will  reply 
that  it  is  not  a  question  of  possibiKty,  but  one  of 
probability.  That  God  could  interfere  with  the 
regular  processes  of  nature  in  order  to  impress 
people  with  his  power,  or  to  increase  the  prestige  of 
some  religious  leader,  or  to  dehver  his  worshipers 
from  danger  or  difficulty,  or  to  relieve  suffering  or 
disabihty,  they  are  willing  to  admit,  but  that  he  has 
ever  done  so,  they  regard  as  very  improbable. 
They  find  it  easier  to  explain  the  rise  of  the  miracle 
narratives  of  the  New  Testament  by  attributing 
them  to  the  creative  rehgious  imagination  of  the 


The  World  Jesus  Lived  In  55 

early  Christian  group  than  by  supposing  that  they 
are  in  all  respects  sober  statements  of  fact.  Others 
will  contend,  as  was  held  widely  a  century  ago,  that 
the  miracles  are  a  vital  part  of  Christianity,  being 
the  God-given  credentials  of  its  divine  origin'  and 
making  it  separate  from  and  superior  to  any  other 
religion.  Often,  also,  the  attempt  will  be  made  to 
force  the  false  alternative  that  one  must  either  take 
the  New  Testament  as  a  whole  as  wholly  correct  or 
discard  it  altogether.  Still  others  will  take  a  medi- 
ating position  and  hold  that  many  of  the  miracles  of 
Jesus  are  explainable  on  the  supposition  that  Jesus 
was  a  powerful  hypnotist,  himself  probably  of  com- 
manding presence  and  robust  health.  To  such  a 
man,  in  addition  a  popular  religious  hero,  many  of 
the  gospel  miracles  would  be  possible.  Healers  of 
this  type  appear  frequently.  Perhaps  some  mem- 
bers of  the  group  will  know  of  one  or  more.  More- 
over, the  cures  effected  by  visits  to  relics  and 
shrines,  Hke  the  church  of  St.  Anne  de  Beau  Pre  in 
Canada,  are  a  proof  of  the  effects  that  can  be 
wrought  by  purely  psychological  means.  To 
explain  the  miracles  that  lie  beyond  this  type,  such 
as  the  walking  on  the  water,  the  feeding  of  the  five 
thousand,  and  the  raising  of  the  dead,  it  is  assumed 
that  the  story  is  an  outgrowth  of  some  incident,  or 
of  some  teaching  of  Jesus,  exaggerated  by  pious 

'As  was  argued  elaborately  by  William  Paley  (i 743-1805) 
in  his  famous  book  The  Evidences  of  the  Christian  Religion. 


56  What  Jesus  Taught 

fancy,  as  it  was  told  and  retold,  into  the  statement 
as  it  now  stands  in  the  gospels. 

The  discussion  group's  essential. — A  view  to 
which  all  will  agree  is  not  likely  to  come  out  of  the 
discussion  of  this  topic.  But  unanimity  of  opinion 
is  by  no  means  so  desirable  as  is  often  supposed.  It 
may  in  fact  be  a  hindrance  to  progress.  What  is 
desirable  in  the  discussion  group  is  candor,  cour- 
tesy, free  expression,  good  temper,  a  willingness  to 
see  all  sides  of  a  problem,  and  respect  for  those  who 
differ  from  us.  Above  all,  we  should  beware  of 
regarding  a  person  whose  opinion  on  these  points 
differs  from  ours  as  not  a  Christian.  Even  on 
points  Hke  these  equally  good  Christian  people 
differ.  This  in  itself  shows  that  it  is  a  matter  of 
opinion,  not  of  character.  Moreover,  our  task  as 
a  discussion  group  is  not  to  get  people  to  hold 
opinions  that  duplicate  our  own,  but  to  strengthen 
good  character  through  the  clearing  up  of  our  own 
thinking,  the  sharing  of  information,  participation 
in  discussion,  and  the  learning  of  the  opinions  of 
others.  We  are  to  remember  that  as  a  rule  people 
think  what  they  have  been  taught  to  think.  Your 
teaching  has  been  different  from  another 's,  and  you 
think  differently. 

People:  a  factor  in  Jesus'  world. — Though 
Jesus '  thought  world  contained  these  supernatural 
agencies  of  evil  which  are  not  now  a  part  of  normal 
experience,  it  contained  two  other  factors  that  are 


The  World  Jesus  Lived  In  57 

real  to  us,  men  and  God.  He  was  not  a  hermit  as 
many  of  his  followers  have  been;  he  went  about 
freely  among  men,  sharing  his  message  generously, 
entering  heartily  into  their  life.  Notice  how  rarely 
you  read  of  Jesus  being  alone.  Notice  how  he 
says  in  Matt.  11:19  ^^^  Luke  7:34  that  his  free 
and  easy  way  of  living  had  been  contrasted  unfavor- 
ably with  John  the  Baptist's  strictness.  Jesus  has 
been  claimed  as  a  great  democrat,  as  a  labor  agita- 
tor, as  a  sociaHst,  as  a  rehgious  revolutionist,  but  it 
is  always  something  that  has  to  do  with  men. 
Jesus  was  a  mixer.  He  was  always  interested  in 
men,  and  it  was  a  genuine,  not  a  professional,  inter- 
est. Have  you  never  met  the  professional  hand- 
shake, with  its  gentle  pull  to  get  you  out  of  the  way, 
the  professional  smile,  the  professional  small  talk 
with  its  obvious  "put  on"?  As  Christians  we 
must  have  a  genuine  affection  for  others.  Dis- 
interested interest  is  one  of  the  last  products  of 
religion.  Under  the  influence  of  a  hypnotic  evan- 
gelist people  have  often  been  wrought  into  a  frenzy 
of  anxiety  over  others.  But  such  things  are  tran- 
sient by-products.  The  grand  effect  of  the  Chris- 
tian religion  is  to  make  us  interested  in  people,  not 
because  they  are  possible  converts  to  our  coterie, 
but  because  they  are  people.  When  biblical 
scholarship  reaches  its  higher  stages  it  ceases  to  be 
denominational;  and  when  reHgion  reaches  its 
higher  stages  it  ceases  to  be  sectarian.     Its  interests 


58  What  Jesus  Taught 

are  no  longer  ecclesiastical,  they  are  human. 
Every  act  of  kindness  to  man  or  beast  is  true  reli- 
gion, and  every  time  one  human  being  helps 
another  he  has  that  far  followed  Christ. 

God:  the  supreme  person  in  Jesus'  world.— 
The  last,  greatest  factor  of  Jesus'  world  was  God. 
We  cannot  enter  into  the  inner  shrine  of  Jesus' 
devotional  life  as  we  can  with  some  others.  He 
left  no  elaborate  descriptions  of  rehgious  raptures 
such  as  were  written  by  Madam  Guyon,  Samuel 
Rutherford,  Jonathan  Edwards,  and  others  of  the 
mystics.  Jesus  left  no  detailed  statement  of  his 
doctrine  of  God  such  as  were  formed  by  the  creed- 
making  councils  of  the  fourth  century,  and  by 
Thomas  Aquinas,  John  Calvin,  and  others  who  have 
drawn  up  systems  of  theology.  But  the  gospels 
show  that  Jesus  lived  with  God,  and  we  gather  that 
it  was  from  this  fact  that  his  Life  gained  its  peculiar 
projective  power.  We  of  today  have  the  same 
chance  to  live  our  lives  with  God.  It  will  not  make 
another  Jesus  of  everyone  to  keep  the  morning 
watch,  and  read  the  New  Testament  daily,  and 
think  often  about  God,  but  it  will  connect  one  with 
the  source  of  power  Jesus  employed.  It  will  add  a 
subtle  sympathy  and  grasp  of  situations,  a  freedom 
from  fear,  a  hold  on  one's  self;  it  will  make  one 
master  in  circumstances  one  can  control,  and  keep 
one 's  nerve  unshaken  where  control  is  not  in  one 's 
power. 


The  World  Jesus  Lived  In  59 

God  in  our  world. — There  is  reason  to  believe 
that  we  live  enveloped  by  a  power  that  is  constantly 
willing  us  good.  Experience  has  shown  us  over 
and  over  again  that  this  power  has  brought  to  us 
better  things  than  we  had  planned.  Disappoint- 
ment, chagrin,  temporary  defeat,  uncertainty,  sick- 
ness, sorrow,  poverty,  wounds,  disablements,  always 
bring  their  after-proofs  that  God  is  good.  Time 
and  again  we  have  seen  men  in  moments  of 
indecision  and  depression,  not  able  to  see  the  way 
out,  and  they  came  off  better  than  they  had 
expected.  These  things  teach  us  that  God  can  be 
depended  upon.  Before  a  man  has  learned  to 
swim,  when  he  is  told  that  the  water  will  hold  him 
up,  he  doubts  it,  but  when  he  has  learned,  he  tells 
others  the  same  thing.  Before,  he  had  thought  of 
water  as  an  uncertain,  dangerous  element,  whose 
function  was  to  let  people  sink,  now  he  thinks  of  it 
as  a  steady,  dependable  element,  whose  function  is 
to  delight  and  refresh  people  and  sustain  them  from 
sinking.  God  is  like  water,  air,  always  dependable, 
always  there.  We  Hve  at  our  best  when  we  build 
our  days  with  him.  Reliance  on  self  is  a  wonderful 
quaHty — rehance  on  God  is,  too.  Consider  Isa. 
50:10,  "He  that  walketh  in  darkness  and  hath  no 
hght,  let  him  trust  in  the  name  of  Jehovah,  and  rely 
upon  his  God."  Jesus  knew,  as  any  man  may 
learn,  that  God  can  be  relied  upon.  We  cannot 
make  him  our  slave  or  wheedle  him  into  giving  us 


6o  What  Jesus  Taught 

what  we  want  for  the  asking,  but  we  can  know  that 
he  is  always  all  about  us  steadily  willing  that  the 
right  shall  win,  always  wishing  us  the  best.  God 
will  not  make  the  world  right,  but  he  will  help  us 
make  it  right.  He  will  not  give  us  without  our  effort 
days  free  from  sin,  but  he  will  help  us  in  our  fight 
for  such  days.  God  helps  men  to  help  themselves, 
and  he  who  fails  to  take  God  into  his  life  loses  much 
of  joy  and  power. 

We  have  considered  the  world  Jesus  lived  in  as 
to  its  historical  setting  and  its  constituent  elements. 
We  have  noted  its  similarities  to  and  its  difference 
from  our  own.  By  this  day's  discussion  we 
approach  a  step  nearer  to  Jesus  as  he  was  and  gain 
an  added  inspiration  to  repeat  his  sort  of  life  in  the 
world  we  live  in. 


CHAPTER  IV 

THE   IMPORTANCE   AND   THE   DIFFICULTY   OF 
KNOWING  WHAT  JESUS  TAUGHT 

Three  reasons  for  its  importance. — Historically, 
personally,  and  for  purposes  of  propaganda,  the 
recovering  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  important. 
Historically,  for  the  whole  Christian  movement 
began  with  him,  and  his  ideas.  Though  there  are 
now  some  five  hundred  millions  of  Christians  in 
the  world,  there  was  a  time  when  Christianity  lay 
like  a  seed  germ  in  the  thought  of  one  man. 
Personally,  for  to  bring  our  own  minds  into  con- 
tact with  the  original,  powerful  ideas  of  Jesus 
ought  to  produce  in  us  something  of  the  same 
enthusiasm  and  devotion  which  they  produced  in 
the  case  of  his  disciples,  and  develop  in  us  the 
same  type  of  hfe  Jesus  himself  lived.  For  pur- 
poses of  propaganda,  because  it  always  helps  to 
carry  conviction  if  we  are  able  to  quote  some  great 
leader  such  as  Lincoln  or  Roosevelt  or  Washington 
in  support  of  what  we  say.  Much  more  so  in 
religious  matters,  if  a  man  is  able  to  say  upon  any 
subject,  "This  was  Jesus'  idea,  this  is  what  Jesus 
taught."  He  has  something  which  not  only 
strengthens  conviction  within  himself,  but  often 
carries  it  with  others. 

6i 


62  What  Jesus  Taught 

general  difficulty:    the  necessity  of 
using  a  book 

But,  though  the  recovering  of  Jesus'  precise 
teaching  is  important,  it  is  not  easy.  Thought  is 
sometimes  not  understood  or  is  misunderstood  even 
when  it  is  put  in  spoken  words,  with  the  expres- 
sions of  the  face  and  the  inflections  of  the  voice  to 
help  make  it  clear.  The  gospels  state  more  than 
once  (Mark  9:32;  Luke  2:50;  John  10:6;  12:6; 
Matt.  15:15;  Mark  4:10;  search  will  find  other 
passages  also)  that  Jesus'  own  disciples,  and  even 
his  own  parents,  sometimes  failed  to  get  his  mean- 
ing. But  when  the  helps  of  voice,  and  gesture,  and 
eye,  and  face  are  gone,  and  we  must  dig  out  a  man 's 
thought  from  words  in  a  book,  the  danger  of  mis- 
understanding him  is  even  greater. 

SPECIAL   DIFFICULTIES 

Moreover,  in  the  task  of  restating  what  Jesus 
taught  we  have  to  work  against  a  number  of  special 
difficulties. 

I.  Meager  source  material. — There  is  the  com- 
parative scarcity  of  source  material.  Jesus  him- 
self, so  far  as  we  know,  wrote  nothing.  Though 
an  enormous  number  of  books  have  been  written 
about  Jesus,  we  have  practically  only  four,  the 
gospels,  that  give  us  any  original  information  con- 
cerning him.  But  these  four  are  very  small  books. 
Mark  has  only  16  chapters,  Matthew  28,  Luke  24, 


Knowing  What  Jesus  Taught  63 

John  21.  Printed  in  a  newspaper  they  would 
altogether  cover  only  eight  pages.  (The  whole 
New  Testament  would  cover  only  eighteen  pages.) 

An  even  closer  limitation  is  necessary.  The 
first  three  gospels  are  much  alike,  while  the  fourth, 
John,  stands  in  a  class  by  itself.  The  difference 
between  it  and  the  others  is  so  great  that  in  restat- 
ing Jesus '  thought  it  is  best  not  to  try  to  combine 
it  with  the  others,  but  to  study  it  separately.  In 
these  discussions  we  shall  stick  generally  to  the 
gospels  of  Mark,  Matthew,  and  Luke,  leaving  the 
thought  of  Jesus  as  represented  in  the  Fourth  Gos- 
pel to  be  taken  up  at  some  other  time. 

We  must  shorten  the  diameter  of  our  circle 
again,  for  the  three  gospels,  Mark,  Matthew,  Luke, 
give  only  a  part  of  their  space  to  recording  what 
Jesus  taught.  They  give  a  good  deal  of  it  to  what 
Jesus  did,  what  other  people  thought  about  Jesus, 
and  what  they  did  to  him.  The  great  events  in  the 
life  of  Jesus  with  which  we  are  most  familiar  are 
not  teaching,  but  action.  Underscore  in  Mark 
every  word  assigned  to  Jesus,  and  you  can  read 
them  all  without  hurry  in  twenty-two  minutes. 
The  scantiness  of  original  material  regarding  Jesus ' 
teaching  becomes  more  impressive  when  one  thinks 
of  the  abundance  we  have  for  studying  that  of  other 
men  of  that  general  period.  Josephus  wrote  two 
works,  each  larger,  not  only  than  the  four  gospels, 
but  larger  than  the  whole  New  Testament;   Philo 


64  What  Jesus  Taught 

had  written  even  more  fully;  Seneca  in  Latin  and 
Arrian's  report  of  the  teaching  of  Epictetus  in 
Greek  are  larger  than  our  sources  for  the  teaching 
of  Jesus.  Plutarch  is  larger  still,  while  Galen,  a 
Greek  physician  born  a  century  after  Jesus '  death, 
has  left  us  twenty  fat  volumes.  It  is  evident  that 
in  our  study  of  the  thought  of  Jesus  we  must  reckon 
upon  an  extraordinary  shortage  of  material. 

2.  His  teaching  not  in  English. — Jesus  taught 
in  a  language  which  to  us  is  foreign.  People  do 
not  always  think  of  this,  especially  when  they  are 
stickling  for  some  particular  word  or  phrase  in  the 
EngUsh  New  Testament.  Jesus  did  not  speak 
English.  There  is  a  story  told  of  an  old  woman 
who  refused  to  read  the  Bible  except  in  the  King 
James  Version,  because,  she  said,  "What  was  good 
enough  for  the  Apostle  Paul  is  good  enough  for  me." 
But  tell  this  story  in  almost  any  group  and  you  will 
see  a  number  of  puzzled  faces.  That  means  that  a 
number  have  not  seen  the  point,  for  they  have 
never  thought  that  Paul  did  not  speak  EngHsh,  and 
that  the  King  James  translation  was  not  made  for 
more  than  1,500  years  after  Paul's  time.  In  the 
same  way  men  often  do  not  think  that  Jesus  spoke 
his  own  language,  not  ours. 

3.  His  teaching  not  in  Greek. — Jesus  spoke  in  a 
language  different  from  that  in  which  the  gospels 
are  written.  He  spoke  in  Aramaic,  but  the  gospels, 
as  well  as  all  the  other  books  of  the  New  Testament, 


Knowing  What  Jesus  Taught  65 

are  written  in  Greek.  This  means  that  even  in 
the  original  gospels  we  have  not  the  actual  words 
Jesus  used.  The  scholar  reads  them  at  second- 
hand, and  when  we  read  our  English  New  Testa- 
ment we  read  them  at  third-hand  after  they  have 
passed  through  two  translations.  This,  of  course, 
does  not  necessarily  detract  from  their  value,  but  it 
is  a  fact  we  ought  not  to  ignore. 

4.  The  report  colored  by  doctrinal  considera- 
tions.— The  gospels  give  us  not  merely  the  teaching 
of  Jesus,  but  the  teaching  about  Jesus,  that  is,  they 
represent  the  belief  of  the  early  church  about  him. 
Into  this  belief  by  the  time  the  gospels  were  written, 
forty  to  seventy  years  after  Jesus'  death,  many 
miraculous  and  legendary  elements  had  entered. 
The  gospel  stories  advance  regularly  from  simplicity 
to  complexity.  Matthew  and  Luke  add  features 
that  are  not  included  in  Mark's  earlier  gospel. 

5.  The  interweaving  of  documents. — The  diffi- 
culty in  recovering  the  exact  teaching  of  Jesus  is 
increased  by  the  composite  make-up  of  the  gospels. 
Matthew  and  Luke  used  Mark;  they  used  several 
other  documents  as  well.  Scholars  have  worked 
patiently  for  a  hundred  years  on  the  literary  rela- 
tionships of  the  gospels  to  each  other  and  to  their 
sources.  One  of  the  best  studies  finds  not  less 
than  eight  documents  to  have  been  used.'     To  sort 

'  Professor  Ernest  De  Witt  Burton's  Some  Principles  of 
Literary  Criticism  and  Their  Application  to  the  Synoptic  Problem. 


66  What  Jesus  Taught 

out  the  teaching  of  Jesus  in  its  earliest  form  is 
not  easy. 

6.  Traditional  religious  ideas. — Ideas  and 
phrases  connected  with  Jesus  absorbed  from  others 
often  make  it  difficult  for  us  to  think  clearly  about 
him.  Just  as  there  was  a  certain  picture  of  Jesus 
current  among  the  Christians  when  the  New  Testa- 
ment was  being  written,  so  there  was  a  certain  con- 
ception of  him  current  in  the  group  in  which  we 
grew  up,  or  in  which  we  have  lived  and  studied. 
This  conception  will  affect  our  idea  of  what  Jesus' 
teaching  was.  Some  men  in  discussion  will  assert 
that  Jesus  knew  all  about  the  Great  War,  or  that  he 
understood  the  mechanism  of  aeroplanes,  others 
will  think  he  did  not  know  such  things.  Do  not 
let  the  views  you  are  familiar  with  keep  you  from  a 
fair-minded  attempt  to  rediscover  Jesus  for  your- 
self. 

7.  Antiquity. — The  immense  distance  in  time 
that  separates  us  from  Jesus  makes  it  difficult  for 
us  to  get  hold  of  exactly  what  he  taught.  Many 
people  are  not  accustomed  to  think  over  long 
spaces.  Back  of  the  period  of  their  own  lives  and 
those  of  their  father's  or  grandfather's,  all  dates, 
events,  and  characters  telescope  into  an  uncertain 
perspective.  This  is  especially  true  of  Bible  char- 
acters and  events.  Was  Moses  before  or  after  the 
Flood?  Who  lived  first,  Elijah  or  Methusaleh? 
It  is  not  easy  to  realize  that  between  us  and  Jesus 


Knowing  What  Jesus  Taught  67 

lie  nineteen  centuries.  Into  our  thought  of  Jesus 
there  sift  down  bits  of  all  that  men  have  thought 
about  him  in  all  that  time.  Much  of  that  thought 
was  not  based  upon  unbiased  study  of  his  teaching. 
Within  the  last  few  years  students  of  the  Bible  have 
been  paying  more  attention  to  Jesus  himself,  and 
what  he  taught,  than  for  ages  before.  They  are 
saying,  Uke  the  Greeks  in  the  twelfth  chapter  of 
John,  "Sir,  we  would  see  Jesus."  Heretofore  they 
have  had  held  up  to  them  a  church,  or  a  belief,  or 
Paul,  or  even  a  sickly,  anemic,  dehumanized  por- 
trait of  Christ.  Now  they  want  to  know  Jesus  as 
he  was.  That  is  the  spirit  of  these  discussions. 
There  must  have  been  a  tremendous  drive  about 
Jesus  to  have  set  such  a  movement  going.  There 
must  have  been  in  his  thought  a  revolutionary  force. 
It  is  that  which  we  want  to  discover.  Jesus  has 
often  been  pragmatized,  that  is,  his  sanction  has 
been  claimed  for  various  modern  ideas.  An  appeal 
to  one's  conscience  to  say  what  ought  to  be  done 
under  given  circumstances  has  been  masked  under 
the  question,  "What  would  Jesus  do?"  When 
thought  out  clearly,  this  question  is  seen  to  mean, 
"What  will  I  do,  if  I  do  right ?  "  In  our  study  of 
Jesus'  teaching,  we  shall  seek  to  find  only  what  is 
there. 

Summary. — We  have  enumerated  the  factors 
that  make  a  recovery  of  Jesus'  teaching  difficult. 
He  spoke  a  foreign  language;    his  teaching  as  it 


68  What  Jesus  Taught 

stands  in  the  gospels  is  already  a  translation ;  the 
writers  have  the  early  church  view,  which  they  are 
anxious  to  preserve  and  propagate;  the  gospels 
are  not  simple,  straightaway  compositions,  but 
are  made  by  putting  together  source  documents; 
our  traditional  conceptions,  and  the  immense  space 
of  time  that  separates  us  from  Jesus,  all  com- 
bine to  increase  the  difficulty  of  restating  what  he 
taught. 

POSSIBILITY  AND  METHOD  OF  KNOWING  WHAT 
JESUS   TAUGHT 

But  to  acknowledge  the  difficulty  is  not  to  deny 
the  possibility.  Anyone  who  can  read  the  gospels 
can  get  a  fair  idea  of  what  Jesus  stood  for.  More- 
over, in  the  gospels  he  has  all  there  is  to  know. 
Nobody  has  any  more.  If  anyone  wishes  to  know 
what  Jesus  taught,  he  has  only  to  read  what  he 
said,  use  his  own  mind,  and  put  two  and  two 
together.  He  may  make  mistakes,  but  there  is  no 
other  way  to  get  ahead.  The  sooner  a  man  learns 
that  he  has  to  make  his  own  religion,  do  his  own 
thinking,  the  better.  Progress  is  made  by  thinking 
hard,  discussing  candidly  and  kindly,  and  trying 
out  our  ideas  in  experience.  Nothing  exists  by 
divine  right,  but  by  right  of  its  proved  value  in 
human  life.  We  are  anxious  to  know  what  Jesus 
thought  even,  not  because  it  will  excuse  us  from 
thinking  for  ourselves,  but  because  it  will  stimulate 
and  help  us  in  our  thinking.     More  important  than 


Knowing  What  Jesus  Taught  69 

Jesus'  thought  is  Jesus'  spirit,  his  type  of  Hving. 
But  back  of  a  man's  acts  are  his  thoughts,  and  in 
finding  what  Jesus  taught,  difficult  though  the 
task  is,  we  shall  find  the  secret  of  his  "wonderful 
way  of  living." 

VARIOUS  APPROACHES  TO  THE  STUDY  OF 
JESUS'  TEACHING 

As  people  have  studied  the  Bible  in  general  from 
different  motives,  so  their  ways  of  approach  to  the 
study  of  the  character  and  teaching  of  Jesus  have 
been  different.  Some  of  these  may  here  be  gathered 
together. 

I.  The  theological  approach. — Some  come  with 
an  elaborately  worked  out  scheme  of  theology, 
which  they  have  taken  over  bodily  from  the  past. 
They  know  in  detail  the  whole  of  God 's  plan  for  the 
human  race  from  Adam  to  the  day  of  judgment. 
In  this  scheme  Jesus  has  his  place.  Their  study  of 
the  gospels  is  likely  to  be  directed  toward  fitting 
the  gospel  statements  into  this  highly  artificial  sys- 
tem. Coupled  with  this  there  is  likely  to  be  a 
theory  as  to  the  character  of  the  gospels  themselves 
which  makes  any  free  inquiry  impossible.  More- 
over, the  teaching  of  Jesus  is  largely  ignored  because 
of  its  inadaptabihty  as  theological  material.  In 
many  of  the  things  that  commonly  have  interested 
Christian  theologians  Jesus  was  not  interested,  or 
at  least  we  have  no  record  of  his  talk  about  them. 
Consequently  those  who  approach  the  study  of 


70  What  Jesus  Taught 

Jesus  with  a  theological  interest  are  much  more 
likely  to  emphasize  his  death  than  his  life,  and  to 
substitute  their  own  or  their  denomination 's  teach- 
ing about  Jesus  for  the  things  he  is  reported  actually 
to  have  said.  The  study  of  Jesus'  own  teaching 
reveals  the  astonishing  fact  that  almost  without 
exception  every  link  in  the  chain  of  the  so-called 
''plan  of  salvation  "  is  missing.  Where  did  men  get 
their  idea  that  in  the  beginning  God  created  a  per- 
fect human  pair,  that  they  sinned  and  somehow 
made  all  their  descendants  sinners,  that  to  offset 
this  God  sent  Jesus  to  die,  so  that  men  might  be 
forgiven?  Not  from  Jesus!  The  things  we  hear 
in  church  and  evangelistic  services  are  mainly 
things  that  Jesus  never  speaks  of. 

2.  The  historical  approach. — Here  the  student 
attacks  the  study  of  Jesus'  life  and  teaching  as  a 
historical  problem.  He  applies  the  same  reasoning 
he  would  apply  in  any  other  case.  He  tries  to 
ascertain  precisely  what  Jesus  taught,  as  well  as 
when  he  lived  and  what  he  did.  He  seeks  only  to 
learn  the  facts.  From  his  findings  opinions  may 
be  drawn,  but  that  is  not  his  task.  He  is  to  exam- 
ine critically  and  report  faithfully  what  he  finds. 
Within  the  last  century  this  approach  has  been  used 
more  and  more,  and  to  its  use  has  been  due  the 
progress  made  in  Bible-study.  From  it  arises  the 
next  method  of  approach,  that  which  is  presup- 
posed in  these  discussions. 


Knowing  What  Jesus  Taught  71 

3.  The  practical  approach. — Here  we  study 
Jesus  and  his  teaching  to  find  what  were  the  power- 
ful factors  in  his  life.  We  want  to  see  how  he  met 
his  problems,  how  he  worked  out  his  principle  of 
action,  what  his  controlling  ideas  were,  how  he 
backed  them  up  with  his  life.  Then  we  shall  under- 
stand what  it  was  that  gave  him  his  great  power, 
and  we  shall  go  out  with  enthusiasm  to  Hve  on  his 
plan,  with  faith  that  it  is  truly  through  him  that 
we,  ourselves,  and  all  the  world  are  to  be  saved. 


CHAPTER  V 
WHAT  JESUS  TAUGHT  ABOUT  CIVILIZATION 

The  meaning  of  "civilization." — The  term  civili- 
zation, as  we  commonly  use  it,  means  the  sum  total 
of  the  phenomena  of  a  nation's  Hfe  at  any  given 
period.  Civilization  includes  a  nation's  govern- 
ment, its  industries,  its  education,  its  popular  cus- 
toms and  beliefs.  In  short  a  nation's  civilization 
is  the  way  that  nation  Hves.  Thus  we  speak  of  the 
ancient  civilizations  of  Egypt,  Babylon,  and  Crete, 
of  Etruria,  Greece,  and  Rome,  meaning  thereby  all 
that  these  ancient  peoples  were  accustomed  to  do 
and  think.  Civilizations  of  different  nations  differ, 
and  the  civiKzation  of  the  same  nation  differs  at 
different  times.  We  think  of  the  civilization  of 
colonial  days  in  the  United  States  as  marked 
by  spinning  wheels,  backlogs,  flint-lock  muskets, 
Indian  fighting,  witchcraft,  stagecoaches,  cold 
meetinghouses,  long  sermons,  blue  laws,  and  Cal- 
vinistic  theology.  A  catalogue  of  the  marks  of 
American  civilization  at  present  would  be  very 
different. 

The  making  of  civilization. — The  result  of  the 
interaction  of  a  nation 's  civilization  and  its  natural 
genius  is  the  national  character.  The  elements  of 
heredity,  environment,  and  personal  decision  make 

72 


About  Civilization  73 

nations,  just  as  they  make  men.  Consider,  for 
example,  how  a  nation's  Hfe  is  affected  by  geog- 
raphy, cKmate,  and  the  civilization  of  surrounding 
nations.  Put  new  factors  into  a  nation's  life,  and 
you  change  its  civilization  and  ultimately  its  char- 
acter. Herein  lies  the  great  responsibility  of  the 
men  who  make  the  laws,  who  decide  the  subjects  to 
be  taught  in  schools  and  colleges,  who  shape  the 
policies  of  corporations,  newspapers,  lodges,  denom- 
inations, and  influential  organizations  of  every 
kind.  Think  how  one  decision  of  the  government, 
one  command  of  an  officer,  may  change  lives.  The 
future  of  a  family,  a  community,  a  county,  a  state, 
a  nation  may  be  altered  by  a  single  decision.  But 
while  it  is  interesting  to  think  of  the  heavy  respon- 
sibiHty  that  some  carry,  there  is  no  one  of  sound 
mind  who  is  free  from  it.  We  are  all  makers  of 
civilization.  The  future  depends  upon  everyone's 
doing  his  part. 

Marks  of  an  ideal  civilization. — Pool  ideas  in 
the  discussion  group  as  to  what  the  characteristics 
of  a  perfect  civilization  would  be.  Every  member 
can  furnish  at  least  ten.  From  the  different  sug- 
gestions a  Hst  of  thirty  or  more  items  will  emerge. 
Many  of  these  will  be  a  direct  outgrowth  of  some 
one  of  the  principles  of  Jesus.  For  example,  among 
others  in  discussion  groups  conducted  by  the 
author,  there  have  been  mentioned  democratic 
government,  compulsory,  universal,  free  education, 


74  What  Jesus  Taught 

elimination  of  child  labor,  aboKtion  of  saloons, 
equal  suffrage,  simplification  of  court  procedure, 
profit  sharing,  separation  of  church  and  state,  san- 
itation, doing  away  with  sweatshops  and  unhealthy 
tenements,  church  union,  and  the  prevalence  every- 
where of  the  spirit  of  kindliness,  human  interest, 
reverence  for  God  and  the  significance  of  human  life. 

The  civilization  of  Jesus'  time. — Jesus  lived  in 
the  midst  of  a  civilization  which  was  Jewish  with 
an  admixture  of  elements  from  two  of  the  greatest 
civilizations  of  antiquity,  Greece  and  Rome,  whose 
institutions,  history,  language,  and  literature 
furnish  a  large  part  of  the  materials  of  education. 
His  was  one  of  the  "little  peoples"  and  had  been 
handed  about  from  one  "power"  to  another.  It 
had  been  influenced  by  all,  but  had  kept  its  own 
character,  as  the  Jews  have  even  to  this  day,  when 
the  "powers"  that  bandied  them  about  have  all 
crumbled  into  dust.  Was  Jesus  satisfied  with  the 
civilization  of  his  time  ?  Or  did  he  see  the  vision  of 
a  different  and  better  one  ? 

Jesus'  ideal  of  civilization:  the  Kingdom  of 
God. — As  it  stands  in  the  Synoptic  Gospels,  a  large 
part  of  Jesus'  teaching  was  about  a  civilization 
whose  type  we  shall  discover  gradually  as  we  go  on. 
In  naming  this  civilization  Jesus  used  a  term 
already  in  use  and  familiar  to  his  hearers.  He 
called  it  the  "Kingdom  of  God."  In  the  first 
three  gospels  he  mentions  it  directly  over  one  hun- 


About  Civilization  75 

dred  times.  He  would  tell  some  story,  using  things, 
events,  and  people  familiar  to  his  hearers,  some- 
times leaving  them  to  draw  their  own  conclusions, 
sometimes  showing  how  the  story  was  like  some 
feature  of  the  new  civilization.  In  this  way  he 
described  its  rise  and  growth,  the  character  of  the 
Kingdom-people,  and  the  way  the  Kingdom  was 
finally  to  be  set  up  in  the  world.  We  shall  read 
Mark,  Matthew,  and  Luke  through  and  see  how 
often  Jesus  referred  to  the  Kingdom  and  how  we 
can  gather  from  what  he  said  what  his  thought 
about  it  was. 

Method  to  be  followed  in  studying  Jesus'  ideal 
civilization. — In  discovering  what  Jesus  taught 
upon  the  subjects  we  shall  study,  our  plan  of  pro- 
cedure will  be  as  follows: 

1.  To  search  through  the  Gospel  of  Mark  for 
material  on  the  topic  under  discussion. 

2.  To  reduce  the  material  found  to  summary 
statements  in  our  own  words. 

3.  To  assemble  these  in  a  composite  statement 
which  shall  give  us  the  total  teaching  of  Jesus  on 
the  topic  as  that  teaching  is  recorded  by  Mark. 

4.  To  apply  the  same  processes  to  Matthew 
and  Luke. 

5.  To  combine  these  three  composite  statements 
into  a  final  one,  which  will  put  before  us  Jesus' 
entire  teaching  on  the  subject  in  hand  as  the  Synop- 
tic Gospels  present  it. 


76  What  Jesus  Taught 

This  method  has  certain  faults,  but  also  certain 
advantages,  and  these  advantages,  it  is  believed, 
justify  its  adoption: 

a)  It  is  simple.  Where  this  form  of  Bible- 
study  has  been  used  it  has  been  quickly  grasped 
and  has  been  followed  with  keen  interest,  because 
the  student  understood  at  once  how  to  go  to  work. 

b)  It  is  heuristic.  No  type  of  teaching  is  more 
enjoyable  than  that  which  allows  us  to  discover 
things  for  ourselves,  under  competent  guidance. 
The  heuristic  method  is  an  approved  pedagogical 
device. 

c)  It  is  thoroughgoing.  By  setting  a  group  of 
alert  minds  at  work  searching  a  single  gospel  for 
material  on  a  single  topic,  the  chances  of  omission 
of  any  pertinent  material  are  reduced. 

d)  It  is  convincing.  Instead  of  employing 
selected  passages  to  support  a  claim — which  is  a 
famiHar  method,  but  which  leaves  one  with  a  query 
as  to  whether  there  may  not  have  been  some  omis- 
sion of  adverse  passages — this  plan  brings  every 
available  bit  of  evidence  into  the  argument  and 
leaves  the  investigator  with  a  sense  of  sureness 
and  completeness  of  grasp  of  the  material. 

e)  It  is  the  natural  method.  The  way  which 
would  occur  to  anyone  who  wished  to  find  what  a 
given  book  said  on  a  given  subject  would  be  to  read 
the  book  and  make  note  of  its  statements  regarding 
the  subject  in  which  he  was  interested.     It  applies, 


About  Civilization  77 

then,  to  the  gospels  a  method  which  one  would 
naturally  apply  to  any  other  book. 

/)  It  is  a  method  whose  use  requires  no  special 
training.  Inasmuch  as  discussion  groups  are  made 
up  of  persons  who  in  many  cases  have  no  experience 
in  the  critical  processes  employed  by  biblical 
scholarship,  this  method  commends  itself  because 
any  intelhgent  person  can  use  it  profitably,  regard- 
less of  his  previous  lack  of  training.  Of  course,  the 
keener  minded  the  student  is,  the  more  he  will  be 
able  to  profit  by  its  use. 

To  some  the  plan  adopted  may  seem  objection- 
able because  it  takes  an  uncritical  attitude  and 
reckons  as  correctly  representing  Jesus  whatever 
the  gospels  studied  record  him  as  teaching.  On 
this  basis  some  things  have  to  be  attributed  to 
Jesus  which  one  would  rather  charge  to  someone 
else's  account.  One  would  naturally  hesitate  to 
attribute  to  Jesus  anything  that  would  seem  unwor- 
thy of  him,  even  though  one  were  to  find  such  dis- 
creditable statements  in  the  gospels  themselves.^ 

'  For  examples  of  statements  which  may  be  so  considered, 
see  Mark  4:12,  the  use  of  parables  to  obscure  his  teaching;  7:27, 
race  prejudice;  7:33  and  8:23,  hocus  pocus;  9:29  and  many 
other  passages  throughout  the  gospels,  belief  in  demons;  11:13, 
14,  petulance;  1 2 :  26-27,  rabbinical  reasoning;  9 :  i  and  parallels, 
.mistaken  expectation;  chap.  13,  Matthew,  chap.  24,  Luke,  chap. 
21,  apocalypticism;  Matt.  10:5,  limitation  of  the  disciples  to 
work  among  Jews;  11: 11,  overstatement;  16:19,  conferring  of 
priestly  powers;  19 :  28,  Luke  23 :  30,  sharing  in  crude  apocalyptic 
ideas;  18:19;  21:21-22,  fanatical  religious  views. 


78  What  Jesus  Taught 

New  Testament  scholars  have  found  various  ways 
of  meeting  this  difficulty : 

a)  One  is,  adopting  Matthew  Arnold's  famous 
epigram,  "Jesus  stands  head  and  shoulders  above 
his  reporters,"  to  ascribe  to  Jesus  such  of  his  teach- 
ing as  we  conceive  could  have  come  from  no  one 
else.  All  the  rest  is  negligible,  as  representing  only 
the  mistaken  notions  of  the  "reporters."  Obvi- 
ously this  is  to  introduce  a  wholly  subjective  criti- 
cism. By  it  one  does  not  square  one 's  conception 
of  Jesus  by  the  gospels,  but  squares  the  gospels  to 
the  conception  of  Jesus  which  one  already  has. 
Such  a  plan  would  not  be  a  fair  or  satisfactory  one 
to  adopt  with  a  discussion  group. 

b)  Another  method  is  to  separate,  by  a  process 
of  hterary  analysis,  the  Synoptic  Gospels  into  the 
several  documents  of  which  they  are  composed, 
thus  making  comparison  and  relative  dating  pos- 
sible. By  this  means  Jesus  may  be  relieved,  for 
example,  of  some  of  the  material  which  ascribes 
to  him  apocalyptic  ideas,  such  as,  e.g.,  that  the 
Kingdom  was  to  be  estabhshed  within  a  generation 
by  his  own  return  from  the  sky,  accompanied  by 
thousands  of  angels,  the  setting  up  of  a  day  of 
universal  judgment,  when  he  and  the  Twelve  would 
arbitrate  the  eternal  destiny  of  all  humanity,  they 
judging  the  Jews  (Matt.  19:28;  Luke  22:30)  and 
he  the  Gentiles  (Matt.  25:32),  and  that  a  part  of 
the  Kingdom  joy  would  be  in  eating  and  drinking 


About  Civilization  79 

(Luke  22:29-30;  22:18;  Mark  14:25;  Matt.  26:  29). 
These  ideas  correspond  so  closely  to  what  we  know 
from  other  parts  of  the  New  Testament  were  the 
notions  prevalent  in  the  primitive  church  that  it  is 
not  unreasonable  to  suppose  that  there  may  have 
been  on  the  part  of  the  gospel  writers  an  uncon- 
scious coloring  of  the  purely  spiritual  teachings  of 
Jesus  with  these  cruder  conceptions  brought  over 
from  previous  Jewish  messianic  expectations.  If 
one  is  able  by  analysis  to  distinguish  gospel  docu- 
ments which  attribute  to  Jesus  a  religious  and 
ethical  message  free  from  apocalyptic  corruption, 
this  supposition  becomes  the  more  probable.  The 
reason  for  not  adopting  this  method  in  the  present 
studies  is  that  most  of  those  for  whom  they  are 
intended  are  not  versed  in  the  niceties  of  synoptic 
criticism.  Moreover  unanimity  of  opinion  on  these 
points  is  lacking  among  those  who  are.  For  our 
purpose,  therefore,  a  more  rough-and-ready  method 
seems  preferable. 

Moreover,  it  is  not  impossible  that  the  gospels 
are  correct  in  their  representations  of  Jesus '  teach- 
ing. Though  it  is  a  bold  suggestion,  it  is  not  an 
incredible  one  that  Jesus  may  have  done  his  epoch- 
making  thinking  inside,  so  to  speak,  an  apocalyptic 
framework.  It  is  inevitable  that  every  thinker 
should  adopt  certain  assumptions,  either  devising 
them  for  himself  or  adopting  or  modifying  those 
have  that  previously  been  held  or  are  current  in  his 


8o  What  Jesus  Taught 

day.  As  a  rule,  these  assumptions  come  out  of  the 
thinker's  environment,  being  furnished  by  the  move- 
ment of  which  he  is  a  part.  To  him  and  to  those 
directly  influenced  by  him  these  ideas  are  Hkely 
to  seem  unquestionable.  The  value  of  his  contribu- 
tion to  world-life  is  not,  however,  dependent  on  their 
being  so.  Even  with  assumptions  that  are  later  dis- 
proved, a  system  of  thought  may  be  erected  that 
contains  invaluable  elements  of  beauty  and  truth. 
In  connection  with  Jesus'  teaching  about  the 
Kingdom  we  encounter  some  of  the  passages  most 
difficult  to  reconcile  with  our  traditional  concep- 
tions of  him,  or  with  other  statements  of  the  gospels. 
But  in  it,  too,  we  find  some  of  the  completest  of  his 
delineations  of  ideal  character  and  Hfe.  In  our 
gathering  of  the  material  which  the  gospels  give  we 
shall  omit  nothing,  but  if  our  discussion  is  to  be  of 
the  most  value  we  shall  need  to  emphasize  not  so 
much  the  apocalyptic  framework,  which  after  all 
corresponds  to  the  mason 's  scaffolding,  as  the  noble 
and  inspiring  teachings  that  are  built  up  along 
with  it. 

THE  TEACHING  IN  MARK 

Summary  of  Mark's  report.^ — In  Mark,  Jesus 
speaks  directly  of  the  Kingdom  of  God  thirteen 
times.  The  passages  are  as  follows:  1:15;  4:11, 
26,30;  9:1,  47;  10:14, 15, 23, 24,  25;  12:34; 14:25. 
These  passages  show  that  Jesus  thought  that  the 
new  civilization  had  had  to  wait  until  a  certain 


About  Civilization  8i 

time  before  it  would  be  set  up,  but  that  the  time 
had  now  arrived  (1:15).  He  regarded  himself  and 
his  disciples  as  having  a  special  understanding  of 
the  Kingdom  which  outsiders  did  not  share  (4:11). 
The  Kingdom  is  to  grow,  grow  mysteriously,  and 
have  a  sudden,  spectacular  climax  (4:26).  It  will 
begin  in  a  small  way,  but  increase  to  gigantic  size 
(4:30).  The  sudden,  spectacular  climax  Jesus 
thinks  of  as  coming  within  a  few  years  (9:1).  To  win 
membership  in  the  Kingdom  one  should  be  willing 
to  sacrifice  a  hand  or  an  eye.  Those  who  do  not  get 
into  the  Kingdom  go  into  the  discard  (Gehenna 
was  the  city  dump)  (9:47).  The  Kingdom-people 
are  simple,  unaffected,  natural  (10:14,  15).  Rich 
men  have  a  hard  time  to  get  into  the  Kingdom 
at  all.  Note  how  surprised  the  disciples  are.  They 
were  used  to  thinking,  like  us,  that  a  rich  man  can 
have  anything  he  wants!  (10:23,  24,  25.)  To  a 
man  who  saw  that  simple  love  to  God  and  man  is 
more  than  rehgious  pomp  and  ceremony,  Jesus 
said,  "You  are  not  far  from  the  Kingdom."  How- 
ever, though  evidently  such  simple  love  was  to  be 
the  reHgion  of  the  Kingdom,  Jesus  demanded  more 
than  that  a  man  agree  with  his  ideas  in  a  theoretical 
way  (12:34).  Jesus  at  the  Last  Supper  says  he 
has  taken  his  last  taste  of  wine  until  the  Kingdom 
has  come  (14:25). 

Recapitulation. — This  is  all.     Mark  does  not 
anywhere  give  us  a  detailed  outhne  of  what  the 


82  What  Jesus  Taught 

Kingdom  meant.  By  piecing  together  these  hints, 
however,  we  get  a  fairly  complete  picture  of  what 
Jesus  taught.  It  was  the  old  Jewish  conception 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God,  but  with  none  of  the  ex- 
travagant statements  about  it  that  had  sometimes 
been  made  (see  Isa.  1 1 : 6-9  for  a  description  of  the 
taming  of  the  wild  animals  when  the  Messiah 
should  come).  God  was  going  to  set  up  the  King- 
dom immediately.  It  would  increase  from  an 
insignificant  beginning  to  enormous  size.  It  would 
be  completed  by  his  own  return  in  a  few  years  with 
hosts  of  angels.  Not  all  (Jews)  are  to  be  in  the 
Kingdom.  Not  all  are  fitted  to  be  members  of  it. 
To  the  unfitted  his  parables  throw  darkness  instead 
of  light  upon  his  teaching.  A  man  ought  to  go  to 
any  length  to  overcome  the  obstacle  that  would 
keep  him  out  of  the  Kingdom.  Wealth  is  one  of 
the  obstacles.  Repentance,  simpHcity,  sincerity, 
and  love  are  the  marks  of  Kingdom-men.  So  sure 
does  Jesus  feel  of  the  program  of  the  future  that  he 
takes  a  vow  not  to  taste  wine  again  until  he  drinks 
it  in  the  Kingdom.  Even  at  the  end  of  his  life, 
then,  the  Kingdom  is  still  something  future  to 
Jesus.  Yet  there  is  nothing  to  indicate  that  he 
thought  of  it  as  a  state  of  being  after  death;  he 
beheved  that  though  it  would  not  come  during  his 
hfetime,  it  would  come  during  his  generation. 

Evaluation. — What  are  the  elements  here  that 
are  available  to  us  ?     Clearly  not  the  time  element, 


About  Civilization  83 

for  already  not  less  than  one  generation,  but  more 
than  sixty  generations  have  passed  away.  Not 
the  national  element,  for  we  can  have  no  interest 
now  in  an  ancient  dream  of  a  Jewish  empire  or  even 
of  a  world- Judaism.  Not  in  its  spectacular  cHmax, 
for  history  indicates  that  the  world  is  to  be  brought 
to  an  ideal  state  by  patient,  long-continued  im- 
provement, wrought  out  by  men,  rather  than  by 
a  sudden  interference  and  revolution  brought  about 
by  God.  It  appears  to  be  God's  way  to  let  men 
work  things  out  for  themselves.  It  is  true  of  the 
world  as  of  the  community  that  "the  redemptive 
forces  are  resident  forces."  While  God  will  help  us, 
he  will  not  do  the  job  for  us.  In  Mark 's  version  of 
Jesus'  teaching  about  the  Kingdom,  however,  there 
are  suggestions  of  permanent  value.  Admission  to 
the  Kingdom  is  based  on  character  and  the  charac- 
teristics required  we,  too,  admire.  Devotion  to 
the  Kingdom  as  the  supreme  value,  penitence, 
unaffectedness,  love,  were  to  mark  the  Kingdom- 
men.  They  would  be  a  part  of  an  ideal  civiUza- 
tion  today  also. 

THE  TEACHING  IN   MATTHEW 

Summary  of  Matthew's  report — When  we 
examine  Matthew's  Gospel  we  find  a  much  fuller 
treatment  of  Jesus'  teaching.  Mark  is  more  a 
book  of  the  acts  of  Jesus  than  of  his  teaching,  de- 
scribing seventeen  miracles  and  referring  to  many 


84  What  Jesus  Taught 

more.  While  Matthew  mentions  fourteen  of  the 
miracles  Mark  records,  he  gives  considerably  more 
space  than  Mark  does  to  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
The  fifty-one  passages  in  Matthew  referring  directly 
to  the  Kingdom  are:  3: 2;  4: 17,  23;  5:3,10,19,20; 
6:10,33;  7:21;  8:11,12;  9:35;  10:7;  11:11,12; 
12:28;  13:11,  19,  24,  31,  ss,  38,  41,  43,  44,  45,  47, 
52;  16:19,  28;  18:1,  3,  4,  23;  19:12,  14,  23,  24; 
20:1;  21:31,43;  22:2;  23:13;  24:14;  25:1,34; 
26:29. 

In  Matthew,  John  the  Baptist  declares  that  the 
Kingdom  is  at  hand,  and  calls  for  repentance  (3:2). 
When  Jesus  began  to  address  the  crowds  his  mes- 
sage was  the  same  (4:17,  23).  In  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  Jesus  says  the  Kingdom-men  will  be 
modest  (5:3).  Endurance  for  right 's  sake  will  also 
characterize  them  (5:10).  The  Kingdom,  is  not  to 
do  away  with  the  requirements  of  the  Jewish  Law. 
In  fact  the  Kingdom  demands  an  even  higher  type 
of  Hving  than  the  strictest  Jews  were  accustomed  to 
(5 :  19,  20).  Men  are  to  pray  for  the  coming  of  the 
Kingdom  (6:10),  and  are  to  give  it  first  place 
(6:33).  Not  everybody  gets  into  the  Kingdom, 
even  though  he  pretend  to  accept  Jesus '  leadership. 
Only  those  enter  who  do  God's  will  (7:21).  The 
Kingdom  is  not  limited  to  the  Jews.  It  will  include 
many  non-Jews,  while  Jews  themselves  will  not  get 
in  (8:11,  12).  Jesus'  message  as  he  goes  from  vil- 
lage to  village  is  about  the  Kingdom  (9:35).     It  is 


About  Civilization  85 

also  to  be  that  of  the  disciples  on  their  tour  (10: 7). 
The  Kingdom-men  will  be  vastly  superior  to  those 
that  have  preceded  them,  so  that  an  inferior  man  in 
the  Kingdom  will  be  greater  than  John  the  Baptist, 
whom  Jesus  eulogizes  as  the  equal  of  the  greatest 
men  of  all  history  (11: 11).  The  verse  in  11:12 
seems  to  be  a  remark  added  in  later  times  and  to 
refer  to  the  persecutions  suffered  by  the  Christians. 
Jesus  argues  that  his  power  to  exorcise  demons  is  a 
proof  that  the  Kingdom  of  God  has  come,  since  it 
shows  that  the  power  of  Satan  has  been  broken  by 
the  Spirit  of  God  which  Jesus  has  (12:28).  The 
disciples  have  special  insight  into  the  facts  about 
the  Kingdom  which  others  do  not  grasp  (13:11). 
FaiHng  to  understand  what  they  have  heard  about 
the  Kingdom  they  soon  forget  it  (13:19).  For  a 
time  the  Kingdom-people  and  those  who  are  not  the 
kingdom  kind  will  live  in  the  world  together  like 
wheat  and  darnel  (13:24),  but  will  later  be  sepa- 
rated (13:41),  and  the  Kingdom-people  glorified 
(13:43).  The  Kingdom  will  begin  in  a  small  way, 
but  gradually  increase  to  huge  size  (13:31,  33). 
When  a  man  discovers  the  Kingdom  he  values  it 
more  than  anything  else  (13 :44, 45).  At  the  proper 
time  God  will  separate  the  Kingdom-people  from 
the  rest  of  the  world  as  fishermen  sort  their  catch 
(13:47).  Men  who  understand  the  Kingdom  will 
find  various  ways  of  describing  it,  some  familiar, 
some  original  (13:52).     Jesus  congratulates  Peter 


86  What  Jesus  Taught 

upon  his  recognition  of  his  (Jesus')  messiahship,  and 
says  that  Peter  has  been  given  the  keys  to  the  King- 
dom of  Heaven,  that  is,  that  Peter  understands 
what  the  nature  of  the  Kingdom  is  and  can  tell  men 
how  to  get  into  it  (i6: 19).  This  verse  is  a  famous 
one,  and  often  used  as  a  proof  that  Jesus  gave  Peter 
a  special  power  by  which  he  could  forgive  men  their 
sins  or  keep  them  from  being  forgiven.  John  20 123 
also  states  that  Jesus  gave  such  a  power  to  the  dis- 
ciples as  a  group.  Did  Jesus  ever  say  such  things  ? 
He  did  claim  to  be  able  to  forgive  sins  (Mark  2:5-11; 
Matt.  9 : 2-6 ;  Luke  5 :  20-24,  S-H  the  same  story) .  He 
did  teach  his  disciples  to  pray  that  they  might  be  for- 
given as  much  as  they  had  forgiven  others  (Matt. 
6:12),  or  because  they  had  forgiven  others  (Luke 
11:4).  He  did  say  that  God 's  forgiveness  was 
based  on  men's  forgiving  their  fellows — forgive  a 
man,  and  God  will  forgive  you;  refuse  to  forgive 
him,  and  God  will  refuse  to  forgive  you  (Mark  1 1 : 
25-26;  Matt.  6:14,  15;  18:35;  Luke6:37;  17:3,4). 
To  so  simple  and  natural  a  thought  about  forgive- 
ness as  this  is  it  may  seem  that  Jesus  would  not  add 
the  teaching  of  a  mysterious  ghostly  power,  com- 
mitted to  one  or  all  of  his  disciples.  Some  will  say 
that  it  does  not  sound  like  Jesus,  but  like  an  echo 
from  later  Christian  thinking.  At  this  distance  we 
can  not  say  that  the  mind  of  Jesus  could  not  have 
held  both  ideas,  that  of  forgiveness  coming  spon- 
taneously from  God  as  a  result  of  a  man 's  attitude 


About  Civilization  87 

toward  his  fellows,  and  that  of  forgiveness  as  medi- 
ated through  special  agents.  The  latter  method 
was  that  with  which  the  Jews  were  familiar,  with 
their  system  of  priesthood  and  sacrifices.  These 
words  ascribed  to  Jesus  must  be  taken  in  connection 
with  all  the  other  teachings  ascribed  to  him,  and 
when  compared  with  these  they  certainly  seem 
incongruous.  Jesus  thinks  of  the  Kingdom  as  com- 
ing within  the  lifetime  of  some  of  his  hearers  (16 :  28). 
In  the  Kingdom  the  simplicity  of  childhood  is  the 
characteristic  most  highly  valued;  without  it  one 
can  not  enter  the  Kingdom  (18: 1-4).  A  forgiving 
spirit  will  mark  the  men  of  the  Kingdom  (18 :  23-35). 
Some  men  will  abstain  from  marriage  or  undergo 
emasculation  to  promote  the  Kingdom  (19:12). 
The  Kingdom-men,  he  repeats,  will  be  simple,  sin- 
cere, unaffected,  like  children  (19:14).  Rich  men 
will  have  a  hard  time  getting  into  the  Kingdom 
(19: 23,  24).  Equahty  will  prevail  among  the  men 
of  the  Kingdom  (20:1-16).  People  of  the  under- 
world, Jesus  says,  will  respond  more  quickly  to  the 
Kingdom  appeal  than  professional  religious  leaders 
(21:31).  The  Kingdom  is  not  to  be  limited  to  the 
Jews,  but  to  go  over  to  non-Jews  (21:43).  Rejec- 
tion of  the  Kingdom  or  unfitness  for  membership 
cancels  a  man's  chances  for  a  place  in  it  (22 : 2-14). 
The  Scribes  anxi  Pharisees  confuse  men  by  their 
opposition  and  so  keep  them  out  of  the  Kingdom 
(23:13).     The  "good  news"  of  the  Kingdom  is 


88  What  Jesus  Taught 

mentioned  (24:14).  The  Kingdom  is  to  be  con- 
summated suddenly,  giving  no  chance  to  the  unpre- 
pared (25:1).  The  righteous  are  to  receive  their 
reward  by  being  given  a  part  in  the  Kingdom  when 
Jesus  returns  in  power  and  glory  (25:34).  Jesus 
vows  not  to  taste  wine  again  until  he  and  his  dis- 
ciples drink  it  in  the  Kingdom  (26:  29). 

Recapitulation. — Summing  up  Matthew's  fuller 
statement  of  Jesus'  teaching  about  the  Kingdom, 
we  may  say  that  it  was  an  ideal  state  of  society 
gradually  brought  about  from  a  small  beginning, 
but  to  be  completed  within  the  lifetime  of  some  of 
Jesus'  hearers.  He  thought  of  it  both  as  already 
begun  and  yet  to  be  finished.  The  end  of  the  period 
of  its  growth  would  be  marked  by  his  own  return, 
accompanied  by  angels,  at  which  time  he  would 
assign  men  of  all  races  to  their  proper  place  either 
in  the  Kingdom  or  in  a  place  of  suffering.  Member- 
ship in  the  Kingdom  was  to  be  based  on  good  char- 
acter as  men  had  demonstrated  it  in  action.  The 
Jews  had  had  an  opportunity  to  accept  the  King- 
dom, but  had  rejected  it,  and  non-Jews  would  now 
have  membership  in  it.  Modesty,  simpHcity,  sin- 
cerity, such  virtues  as  we  regard  as  natural  to 
childhood  would  be  those  that  made  men  fit  for  the 
Kingdom.  The  Kingdom  was  so  important  that 
men  should  give  it  the  highest  place  in  their  lives. 

Evaluation. — Thus  we  can  see  that  even  in 
Matthew,  where  Jesus'  teaching  about  the  King- 


About  Civilization  89 

dom  is  given  most  fully,  we  can  get  only  a  glimpse 
of  what  his  thought  was.  There  is  enough,  how- 
ever, to  make  it  clear  that  the  Kingdom-teaching 
was  the  heart  of  his  message,  and  that  he  set  it 
before  men  as  life's  most  commanding  ideal.  As 
in  Mark,  there  are  features  of  it  which  compel  our 
allegiance  at  once,  while  there  are  others  that  were 
a  part  of  the  thought  of  the  time,  and  which  have 
no  significance  now.  But  the  Kingdom  as  inter- 
racial, made  up  of  modest,  simple,  sincere  men, 
who  have  exchanged  for  the  religion  of  organization 
and  ritual,  the  religion  of  the  Spirit,  who  are  willing 
to  suffer  for  the  right,  who  are  so  kindly  in  their 
attitude  toward  others  that  they  are  willing  to  make 
their  own  forgiveness  of  others  the  yardstick  by 
which  God  shall  measure  off  the  forgiveness  they 
ask  for,  who  have  lost  their  petty,  personal  cares 
in  enthusiasm  for  a  great,  unselfish  cause,  who 
back  up  their  professions  of  loyalty  to  Jesus  by 
acts  of  human  goodness,  these  elements  appeal 
today. 

THE  TEACHING  IN  LUKE 

Summary  of  Luke's  report. — Taking  up  Luke's 
report  of  Jesus '  great  central  message,  we  find  him 
referring  to  it  directly  thirty-seven  times,  as  follows : 
4:43;  6:20;  7:28;  8:1,  10;  9:2,  II,  27,  60,  62; 
10:9,  11;  11:2,  20;  12:31,  32;  13:18,  20,  28,  29; 
14:15;  16:16;  17:20,  21;  18:16,  17,  24,  25,  29; 
19:11;  21:31;    22:16,  18,  29,  30;    23:42,  52.     As 


90  What  Jesus  Taught 

was  the  case  in  Matthew  some  of  these  of  course  are 
duplicates  from  Mark. 

Luke's  first  record  of  Jesus'  use  of  the  term, 
"the  Kingdom  of  God,"  is  in  4:43  in  his  version  of 
the  story  told  in  Mark  i :  35-39.  Jesus  says  that  he 
was  sent  to  preach  the  good  tidings  of  the  Kingdom 
of  God.  Luke  also  has  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount 
in  a  shorter  form  than  that  of  Matthew,  chapters 
5,  6,  7.  According  to  Luke,  Jesus  regards  poverty 
as  calculated  to  develop  the  type  of  character 
which  distinguishes  a  Kingdom-man  (6 :  20).  Jesus 
eulogizes  John  the  Baptist  as  the  equal  of  the  great- 
est men  of  history,  but  regards  the  new  civilization 
he  has  in  mind  as  so  much  in  advance  of  the  one 
then  present  that  a  Kingdom-man  of  inferior  capa- 
city would  be  superior  to  past  history's  greatest 
men  (7:28).  Jesus  and  his  party,  composed  of  at 
least  twenty-five  men  and  women,  tour  Palestine 
preaching  the  Kingdom-doctrine  (8:1).  In  explain- 
ing what  he  meant  by  his  story  about  the  sower  and 
the  seed  Jesus  tells  (as  in  Mark  4:11-12)  what  his 
motive  was  in  using  stories.  His  object  was  not,  as 
is  often  supposed,  to  make  his  meaning  clearer,  but 
rather  to  obscure  it,  make  it  harder  to  understand 
(8:10).     He  quotes  Isa.  6:9  in  his  explanation. 

Jesus  sent  twelve  of  his  students  out  on  a  village 
preaching  tour  (9:2).  At  Bethsaida,  Jesus  ad- 
dresses the  crowds  that  follow  him  there  upon  the 
subject,  the  Kingdom  of  God  (9:11).     Some  of  his 


About  Civilization  91 

hearers  would  live  to  see  the  coming  of  the  King- 
dom (9: 27).  The  duty  of  preaching  the  Kingdom 
takes  precedence  even  of  family  obligations  (9 :  60) . 
Once  committed  to  the  task  of  promoting  the 
Kingdom,  no  retreat  was  permissible  (9:62).  He 
once  sent  out  seventy  of  his  adherents  on  a  preach- 
ing tour.  Their  message  was  to  be,  the  Kingdom 
of  God  was  near.  If  the  villages  rejected  them, 
they  were  in  leaving  to  repeat  their  assertion  that 
the  Kingdom  was  near  (10:9,  11).  In  the  Lord's 
Prayer,  Jesus  taught  men  to  pray  for  the  coming  of 
the  Kingdom  (11:2).  He  regarded  his  success  in 
casting  out  demons  as  a  proof  that  the  Kingdom 
had  come  (11 :  20).  He  thought  that  if  men  would 
devote  themselves  to  the  Kingdom,  God  would  see 
to  it  that  they  were  supphed  with  enough  to  eat  and 
to  wear  (12:31).  God's  own  interest  in  the  King- 
dom was  a  guaranty  of  this  (12:32).  The  Kingdom 
is  to  grow  immensely,  though  its  beginning  will  be 
small  (13:18,  20).  In  the  Kingdom  there  will  be  the 
old  Jewish  patriarchs  and  prophets  and  many  Gen- 
tiles. But  many  of  Jesus '  hearers  may  find  them- 
selves excluded  (  13:28-29).  In  response  to  the 
remark  of  a  fellow-guest  concerning  the  felicity  of 
those  who  should  banquet  in  the  Kingdom,  Jesus 
told  a  story  to  show  how  people  were  refusing  the 
invitation  to  become  sharers  in  the  Kingdom. 
Those  who  had  the  first  chance  threw  it  away, 
and  the  invitation  then  went  to  others  who  would 


92  What  Jesus  Taught 

appreciate  it,  that  is,  to  the  non-religious  classes, 
the  lower  strata  of  Jewish  society  (14:15-24).  In 
16: 16  Luke  clears  up  the  difficult  passage  in  Matt. 
11:12  making  Jesus  comment  upon  men 's  eager- 
ness to  enter  the  Kingdom.  Upon  being  asked 
when  the  Kingdom  would  come,  Jesus  said  it  was 
present  already  (17:20,  21).  Obviously  he  means 
it  has  begun.  The  mustard  seed  has  been  planted, 
the  leaven  has  been  placed  in  the  meal.  Kingdom - 
men  have  the  simplicity  of  childhood  (18:16); 
without  such  characteristics  they  cannot  enter  it 
(18:17).  Rich  men  enter  with  the  greatest  diffi- 
culty (18:24,  25).  Those  who  make  sacrifices  for 
the  Kingdom 's  sake  will  be  fully  recompensed  both 
before  and  after  the  Kingdom  comes  (18:29). 
"The  world  to  come"  or  "the  age  to  come"  was  a 
common  phrase  referring  to  the  time  after  the 
Kingdom  had  been  set  up.  In  19: 11-27  Luke  tells 
how  Jesus  threw  cold  water  on  the  people's  idea 
that  the  Kingdom  was  about  to  be  established. 
Jesus  told  a  story  to  show  that  there  would  be  a 
considerable  wait  and  that  meanwhile  there  was  a 
chance  for  character  to  show  itself.  Incidentally 
he  throws  in  a  threatening  warning  against  those 
who  oppose  him.  Preceding  the  coming  of  the 
Kingdom  there  is  to  be  a  period  of  terrific  upheaval 
and  distress  accompanied  by  fearful  natural  calami- 
ties (21:31).  At  the  Last  Supper,  Jesus  renounces 
the  partaking  in  the  Passover  meal,  and  drinking 


About  Civilization  93 

wine,  until  the  Kingdom  has  come  (22:16,  18). 
He  pictures  the  Kingdom  in  which  his  disciples  are 
to  share.  They  are  to  eat  at  Jesus '  table  and  each 
one  is  to  act  as  a  judge  of  one  of  the  twelve  tribes 
of  Israel  (22 :  29-30).  One  of  the  men  crucified  with 
Jesus  asks  that  Jesus  "remember"  him — that  is 
with  favor — when  he  shall  come  in  his  Kingdom 
(23:42).  Joseph  of  Arimathea,  who  secured  the 
body  of  Jesus  after  death,  was  a  member  of  the 
Kingdom-party  among  the  Jews  (23 :  52).  Compare 
Mark  15:43,  and  Matt.  27:58,  which  hints  that 
to  be  a  disciple  of  Jesus  was  to  be  an  expecter  of 
the  Kingdom. 

Recapitulation.— We  see,  then,  that  Luke  has, 
to  a  large  extent,  the  same  teaching  about  the  King- 
dom which  Mark  and  Matthew  preserve,  but  that 
he  has  also  some  new  material.  He  makes  Jesus 
not  only  regard  wealth  as  a  hindrance  to  entrance 
into  the  Kingdom,  but  regard  poverty  as  a  help. 
This  distinct  reference  to  poverty  is  a  new  note.  So 
also  the  reference  (8:1)  to  the  large  number  of 
women  who  accompanied  Jesus  and  his  twelve  dis- 
ciples on  a  preaching  tour  and  who  financed  the  mis- 
sion is  new.  Luke  also  (16: 16)  makes  intelligible  a 
passage  which  in  Matt.  11:12  is  difficult  to  under- 
stand. He  also  identifies  the  period  Jesus  speaks 
of  as  the  "regeneration"  in  Matt.  19:28  with  the 
Kingdom  (22:29,  3°)-  The  passage  referring  to 
the  Father's  delight  in  giving  the  Kingdom  as  a 


94  What  Jesus  Taught 

basis  for  confidence  that  he  will  provide  food  and 
clothing  for  the  man  who  devotes  himself  to  the 
Kingdom  (12:32)  is  new.  No  other  gospel  has  it. 
Likewise  the  whole  account  of  Jesus '  statement  that 
the  Kingdom  is  already  present  among  men  (17: 
20-21)  is  new  material.  So  also  is  the  bandit's 
appeal  to  Jesus  to  "remember"  him  in  the  King- 
dom (23:42). 

Evaluation. — Aside  from  the  values  already 
noted  in  the  discussion  of  Mark's  and  Matthew's 
reports,  Luke's  version  of  Jesus'  teaching  empha- 
sizes a  common  observation,  viz.,  the  tendency  of 
poverty  to  strengthen  character.  This  is  a  point 
that  in  the  discussion  group  will  at  once  arouse  vari- 
ant opinions.  Obviously  the  truth  does  not  lie 
either  in  extreme  afiirmation  or  in  extreme  denial. 
Discussion  will  bring  out  the  Lines  of  limitation. 
Yet  this  phase  which  Luke  emphasizes,  and  which 
has  led  some  scholars  to  think  that  Luke  was  influ- 
enced by  the  Ebionites,  is  one  which  experience  in  a 
broad  way  justifies.  A  wholesome  attitude  toward 
the  economic  Hmitations  under  which  most  people 
necessarily  live  is  important,  and  the  recognition 
of  the  character-forming  value  of  poverty  in  the 
teaching  of  Jesus  is  significant.  Likewise  the 
prominence  given  by  Luke  to  the  activity  of  women 
in  connection  with  Jesus'  preaching  of  the  King- 
dom-gospel is  a  feature  that  will  be  noted  and 
prized  by  some.     Luke  has  sometimes  been  called 


About  Civilization  95 

the  "woman's  gospel"  because  of  this  emphasis, 
which  may  be  traced  in  a  number  of  passages.  In 
these  pecuKarities,  then,  Luke 's  report  adds  to  the 
values  of  the  Kingdom-teaching. 

RECAPITULATION  OF  JESUS '  TEACHING  ABOUT 

CIVILIZATION  AS  GIVEN  BY  MARK, 

MATTHEW,  AND  LUKE 

On  the  basis  of  these  hundred  or  more  passages 
in  Mark,  Matthew,  and  Luke  must  rest  our  recon- 
struction of  Jesus'  teaching  about  the  Kingdom. 
We  have  nothing  else  to  build  upon.  We  could 
easily  carry  the  study  into  the  ideas  about  the 
Kingdom  of  God  current  among  the  Jews  before 
Jesus  and  current  among  the  Christians  after  Jesus, 
but  neither  would  determine  for  us  with  certainty 
the  idea  Jesus  held.  That  we  must  get,  if  we  get  it 
at  all,  from  the  gospels,  and  almost  entirely  from  the 
first  three  gospels.  The  Gospel  of  John  has  only 
three  passages,  3:3,  5;  18:36,  in  which  the  King- 
dom is  mentioned,  and  these  are  unHke  anything  in 
Mark,  Matthew,  or  Luke.  What  can  we  say  on 
the  basis  of  the  gospel  evidence  was  Jesus'  ideal 
civilization,  his  conception  of  the  Kingdom  of 
God? 

1.  It  was  a  society  made  up  of  human  beings 
(not  angels,  archangels,  etc.). 

2.  It  was  located  upon  earth  (not  somewhere  in 
the  sky). 


96  What  Jesus  Taught 

3.  Jesus  himself  was  to  be  the  ruling  person  in  it. 

4.  His  twelve  disciples  were  to  be  governors  or 
judges,  each  heading  one  of  the  twelve  tribes.  Of 
course  at  this  time  there  were  only  two  tribes  (ten 
had  been  "lost"  in  721  B.C.,  see  p.  44),  but  in 
the  Kingdom  the  ancient  number  was  to  be  in  some 
way  restored. 

5.  There  was  to  be  eating  and  drinking  in  the 
Kingdom  and  the  Twelve  were  to  eat  at  Jesus' 
table.  Jesus  foregoes  drinking  wine  until  he  may 
drink  it  in  the  Kingdom. 

6.  The  Jewish  patriarchs,  Abraham,  Isaac,  and 
Jacob,  are  to  be  in  the  Kingdom,  as  well  as  many 
others,  who  are  non-Jews.  Jesus  shows  elsewhere 
(Mark  12 :  26  and  parallels)  that  he  thinks  of  Abra- 
ham, Isaac,  and  Jacob  as  still  alive. 

7.  The  Kingdom  is  to  be  formally  inaugurated 
by  Jesus '  own  return  upon  the  clouds  as  the  Son  of 
Man,  accompanied  by  hosts  of  angels. 

8.  All  nations  will  then  be  assembled  before  him 
in  judgment,  which  will  be  based  upon  the  treat- 
ment they  have  accorded  to  the  Jews.  Any  kind- 
ness or  failure  to  show  kindness  to  a  Jew  will  be 
treated  by  Jesus  as  if  done  directly  to  him  person- 
ally. The  blessing  and  the  doom  of  this  judgment 
will  be  for  eternity. 

9.  Preceding  the  formal  inauguration  of  the 
Kingdom  there  will  be  a  period  marked  by  terrific 
calamities  and  a  state  of  social  anarchy. 


About  Civilization  97 

10.  Jesus  anticipates  his  own  death  at  the  hands 
of  the  Jewish  religious  leaders,  but  believes  he  will 
be  raised  from  death  and  later  return  as  the  Son 
of  Man. 

11.  This  return  will  be  within  the  lifetime  of 
some  of  his  hearers,  say  roughly  inside  of  fifty  years. 

12.  During  this  intervening  period  the  King- 
dom will  gradually  grow  from  a  small  beginning  to 
immense  size.  That  is,  Jesus  thinks  of  it  as  already 
numbering  a  few  members,  but  destined  to  include 
multitudes. 

13.  The  Kingdom-men  are  to  be  marked  by  the 
characteristics  of  simpKcity,  modesty,  kindliness, 
the  severest  rectitude,  submission  to  the  will  of  God, 
devotion  to  the  Kingdom,  poverty,  brotherhness. 

14.  The  Kingdom  when  once  estabUshed,  is  to 
last  forever. 

Present-day  value  of  the  teaching. — What  are 
now  the  features  of  Jesus'  Kingdom  teaching  that 
are  of  value  to  us  today  ?  Taking  it  as  it  stands  in 
the  gospels  and  trying  to  combine  the  statements 
given  into  a  coherent  whole,  we  find  much  that  is 
foreign  to  our  ways  of  thinking.  But  this  foreign- 
ness  lies  in  the  form  of  expression  rather  than  in  the 
essential  idea.  As  generations  pass,  terminologies 
change,  but  a  great  idea  lives  on  indefinitely.  And 
Jesus  crammed  into  the  phrase  the  Kingdom  of  God 
a  meaning  that  thrills  men  even  yet.  Stripped  of 
its  temporary  trappings  it  is  the  Master's  dream  of 


qS  What  Jesus  Taught 

an  ideal  civilization.  It  was  to  be  a  form  of  social 
life  in  which  men  lived  sincerely,  devoutly,  simply, 
with  all  their  actions  controlled  by  love,  that  is, 
consideration  of  the  common  good.  The  honoring 
of  the  obscure  virtues  of  forbearance,  modesty, 
poverty,  unadvertised  kindnesses,  will  mark  the 
Kingdom  civiHzation.  Kingdom-men  will  do  the 
will  of  God.  It  has  been  well  said,  "The  Kingdom 
of  God  is  a  social  order  wherein  men  live  together 
as  brothers  regarding  God  as  Father." 

A  vision  of  a  possible  world-civilization. — Once 
in  a  while  we  catch  a  glimpse  of  what  human  life 
may  become.  We  see  the  vision  of  a  humanity 
united  in  the  task  of  conquering  this  planet  as  a 
habitation  for  man.  We  dream  of  a  time  when  the 
immense  fortunes  that  have  hitherto  been  period- 
ically swallowed  up  in  the  engulfing  crater  of  war 
will  be  spent  in  the  intensification  of  agriculture, 
the  perfecting  of  roads,  bridges,  waterways,  sani- 
tation, municipal  projects,  and  all  that  goes  to 
improve  life-conditions.  We  have  been  like  that 
French  engineer  who  proposed  to  open  a  channel 
into  the  Sahara  and  cover  its  sands  with  the  waters 
of  the  Mediterranean,  and  so  turn  a  desert  into  a 
garden.  We  have  conceived  of  an  era  when  men 
should  not  any  more  die  before  their  time,  when 
the  workman  should  be  adequately  protected  by 
safety  devices,  when  scientific  sanitation  should 
insure  the  public  health,  when  proper  housing  and 


About  Civilization  99 

nursing  should  reduce  infant  mortality,  when  every 
human  being  born  into  the  world  should  be  well 
born,  with  its  blood  free  from  the  taint  of  transmis- 
sible disease,  when  every  life  should  have  a  chance 
to  develop  to  its  full  value,  when  the  forces  of  nature 
should  be  reduced  to  servitude,  and  man  conquer 
so  far  as  may  be  storm  and  tidal  wave,  earthquake 
and  volcano.  And  more  than  this,  when  ignorance, 
superstition,  cruelty,  and  vice  should  yield  to  reason 
and  the  religion  of  Jesus,  and  men  should  dwell 
together  in  love  as  the  children  of  the  All-Father! 
It  is  only  a  glimpse  we  have  as  yet  of  what 
human  life  may  become.  We  know  of  the  civiliza- 
tions of  Mesopotamia  and  Egypt  seven  thousand 
years  ago,  but  even  yet  the  human  race  is  young. 
The  task  of  man  as  given  in  Genesis,  "replenish  the 
earth  and  subdue  it"  is  only  begun.  Think  how 
immeasurably  Hfe  in  China  will  be  benefited  by  the 
building  of  railroads  and  the  spread  of  one  common 
language;  think  how  much  of  Mexico,  South 
America,  Africa,  lies  uncultivated,  untamed  wilder- 
ness. Think  what  fascinating  fields  of  research  lie 
open  in  the  values  of  plants,  the  discovery  of  new 
methods  in  agriculture,  manufacture,  machinery, 
chemistry,  medicine,  surgery,  and  every  branch  of 
science.  Education  ought  to  teach  us  how  to  live, 
but  its  scheme  has  been  largely  remote  from  life. 
In  education,  too,  there  is  a  great  field  for  him  who 
would  help  humanity  conquer  this  planet.     Life  is 


loo  What  Jesus  Taught 

thrillingly  interesting  when  we  think  of  ourselves  as 
partners  in  the  great  firm  of  God,  Man,  and  Com- 
pany organized  for  the  improvement  of  the  world ! 
By  working  all  together  we  can  make  the  King- 
dom of  God — the  ideal  world-civiKzation — come. 
The  part  each  man  has  is  this — Do  Right!  When 
for  a  day,  an  hour,  we  act  with  those  words  as  our 
guide,  we  have  for  so  long,  and  so  far  as  our  influ- 
ence goes,  made  the  Kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  In 
the  completed  Kingdom  every  man  will  do  right  all 
the  time,  then  every  man  will  have  his  chance, 
earth  will  be  subdued,  and  human  life  will  have 
become  ideal. 


CHAPTER  VI 

WHAT  JESUS  TAUGHT  ABOUT  HATE,  WAR,  AND 
NON-RESISTANCE 

The  problem  of  hate. — One  of  the  problems 
raised  during  the  world-war  was  that  of  hate. 
Some  asked,  "How  can  we  avoid  hating  the 
enemy  ?  "  Others  held  that  in  war  time  hate  is  not 
only  unavoidable,  but  desirable;  that  men  fight 
best,  give  most  money,  and  are  most  patriotic,  when 
they  hate  hardest,  and  that  consequently,  as  a  war 
measure,  whatever  deepens  hate  is  to  be  promoted. 
Americans  were  censured  for  not  hating  more 
intensely,  and  were  advised  that  the  time  was  com- 
ing when  they  would  hate  as  they  had  never  hated 
before.  Without  question  many  persons  honestly 
believed  that  to  hate  the  enemy  was  a  virtue  and  a 
proof  of  the  soundness  of  their  Americanism.  Yet 
now  it  is  realized  that  the  hate  so  industriously 
cultivated  must  be  allowed  to  die  out,  or  better 
still,  a  propaganda  of  friendhness  be  launched 
which  shall  undo  the  work  done  by  the  propaganda 
of  hate. 

Besides  this  emergency  hate  of  war  time  there  is 
the  social  problem  of  hatred  in  ordinary  life.  In 
many  a  quiet  village  and  country  neighborhood  the 
religious  or  social  worker  finds  his  plans  baffled 


I02  What  Jesus  Taught 

again  and  again  by  the  crossing  lines  of  hate.  One 
of  the  tasks  of  the  minister,  for  example,  is  the  dis- 
covery of  the  parish  hatreds. 

Hate  is  a  personal  problem,  also.  Nearly  every- 
body in  the  course  of  a  lifetime  encounters  someone 
who  is  offensive,  or  unfair,  arrogant,  dishonest,  or 
cruel,  someone  who  in  some  way  outrages  his  feel- 
ings and  arouses  his  resentment.  He  will  have  to 
fight  hard  to  keep  hate  from  setting  in. 

Jesus  and  the  hate  problem. — The  hate  problem 
in  all  its  phases,  international,  social,  and  personal, 
was  famihar  to  Jesus.  Some  sixty  years  before  his 
birth  the  Roman  general  Pompey  had  conquered 
Palestine  and  changed  it  from  a  little  independent 
state  to  a  tax-ridden  province  of  Rome.  The  sol- 
diers had  cut  the  throats  of  the  Jews  who  were 
worshiping  in  the  Temple.  Exorbitant  taxation 
had  been  followed  by  Graeco-Roman  propaganda 
and  the  introduction  of  pagan  customs.  Every 
effort  had  been  made  to  Romanize  Palestine. 
Against  the  powerful  government  that  was  thus 
attempting  to  absorb  them  and  smother  their  sense 
of  nationality,  the  Jews  cherished  an  intense  hostil- 
ity. Jesus  knew,  too,  the  hatred  felt  between 
classes,  that  between  the  Jews  and  the  Samaritans, 
and  that  between  the  loyal  Jewish  citizens  and  the 
publicans  who  had  become  the  agents  of  Rome. 
There  is  a  hint,  too,  that  he  must  have  known  some- 
thing of  the  animosities  that  existed  between  rival 


About  Hate,  War,  and  Non-Resistance     103 

villages  (John  1:44,  46).  And  Jesus  learned  bit- 
terly well  from  his  own  experiences  what  it  was  to 
have  personal  enemies. 

Knowing  hate  so  well  Jesus  stood  squarely 
against  it,  urging  men  to  love  their  enemies,  and  to 
pray  for  their  persecutors  (Matt.  5:43).  This  is 
all  the  more  remarkable  because  in  the  religion  in 
which  Jesus  was  brought  up  there  was  much  that 
sanctioned  hate.  Jesus  mentions  as  a  current  quota- 
tion from  the  law,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor 
and  hate  thine  enemy,"  not  a  correct  quoting  of  the 
law  (Lev.  19: 18),  but  one  which  shows  the  temper 
of  his  fellow-religionists.  Moreover,  there  was 
much  in  the  Old  Testament  to  justify  their  atti- 
tude. The  imprecatory  psalms  (e.g.,  Psalms  59 
and  69)  are  samples  of  terrible  curses  called  forth  by 
religious  hate.  Of  those  whom  he  regarded  as  the 
enemies  of  Yahveh  the  psalmist  says,  "I  hate  them 
with  a  perfect  hatred  "  (Ps.  139 :  22).  The  prophecy 
of  Nahum  is  an  ancient  Jewish  "Hymn  of  Hate." 
When  Jesus  teaches  love  for  enemies  he  is  setting  up 
a  higher  standard  of  morality  than  the  religion  of 
his  ancestors  had  erected. 

We  often  use  the  word  "hate "  without  thinking. 
If  one  thinks  over  what  hate  really  is,  it  is  not  hard 
to  see  why  Jesus  wished  men  to  eliminate  it  from 
their  lives.  The  reason  is  that  hate  is  an  essentially 
degrading  passion.  Suspicion,  disapproval,  hostil- 
ity, anger,  are  all  at  times  justifiable  and  may,  if 


I04  What  Jesus  Taught 

controlled  by  reason,  even  be  ennobling.  But  hate 
is  different,  and  stands  in  a  class  by  itself.  It  is 
ill-will,  desire  to  injure,  and  predisposes  one  to 
unfair  action.  Moreover,  there  is  a  strain  of 
cowardice  in  it.  It  thus  reacts  on  the  person  who 
cherishes  it,  blinding  him  to  facts  and  making  him 
act  against  his  own  interest. 

For  the  negative  and  degrading  passion  of  hate, 
Jesus  substituted  the  positive  and  ennobling  atti- 
tude of  friendliness,  of  genuine  well-wishing,  that  we 
call  love.  Define  love  as  desire  for  the  well-being  of 
others  and  it  is  obvious  that  this  attitude  is  wholly 
compatible  with  the  sternest  justice,  in  fact 
demands  it.  It  is  no  mark  of  love  when  parents  do 
not  require  obedience,  when  teachers  are  lax,  when 
officials  wink  at  crime,  when  national  arrogance  and 
oppression  are  allowed  to  go  unresisted.  Jesus 
made  love,  consideration  for  the  general  good,  the 
controlling  principle  of  action.  He  recognized  also 
that  men  tend  to  react  as  they  are  acted  upon,  that 
they  are  likely  to  take  the  same  attitude  toward  us 
that  we  take  toward  them.  Thus  he  says  (Matt. 
7:1-12),  "If  you  are  critical,  you  will  be  criti- 
cised; if  you  are  generous,  men  will  be  generous 
to  you;  if  you  want  people  to  treat  you  in  a  cer- 
tain way,  treat  them  in  that  way,  and  you  will 
get  what  you  want."  Thus  Jesus  would  have  us 
overcome  hate  in  others  by  showing  the  kindness 
in  ourselves. 


About  Hate,  War,  and  Non-Resistance    105 

Jesus'  teaching  about  war. — Jesus  makes  very 
little  direct  use  of  the  term  "war."  The  word 
occurs  but  four  times  in  his  recorded  teaching,  and 
then  without  discussion  of  the  merits  of  war  itself. 
In  Mark  13 : 7,  in  the  so-called  "Little  Apocalypse," 
or  "Apocalypse  of  Jesus,"  Jesus  is  represented  as 
saying  "And  when  ye  shall  hear  of  wars  and  rumors 
of  wars,  be  not  troubled."  The  "Little  Apoca- 
lypse" is  taken  up  also  by  Matthew  and  Luke,  and 
in  Matt.  24:6  the  saying  is  rendered,  "And  ye  shall 
hear  of  wars  and  rumors  of  wars,  see  that  ye  be  not 
troubled."  In  Luke  21:9  the  same  saying  reads, 
"And  when  ye  shall  hear  of  wars  and  tumults,  be 
not  terrified."  In  Luke  14:31  in  giving  warning  of 
the  difficulty  and  cost  of  discipleship  he  says,  "Or 
what  king,  as  he  goeth  to  encounter  another  king  in 
war,  will  not  sit  down  first  and  take  counsel  whether 
he  is  able  with  ten  thousand  to  meet  him  that  Com- 
eth against  him  with  twenty  thousand?"  Jesus 
then  directly  mentions  war  in  only  two  passages, 
Mark  13:7  and  Luke  14:31,  since  Matt.  24:6  and 
Luke  21:9  are  duplicates  of  Mark  13:7.  In  the 
one  instance  it  occurs  in  a  prediction,  in  the  other 
in  an  illustration,  but  in  neither  does  he  discuss 
war  itself. 

Indirectly  Jesus  teaches  something,  though  not 
much,  about  war.  In  Matt.  10 : 34  he  says,  "Think 
not  that  I  came  to  send  peace  on  the  earth :  I  came 
not  to  send  peace,  but  a  sword."    This  is  followed 


io6  What  Jesus  Taught 

shortly  by,  "He  that  findeth  his  Kfe  shall  lose  it; 
and  he  that  loseth  his  Hfe  for  my  sake  shall  find  it." 
Taking  these  together  it  might  seem  that  Jesus 
thought  of  heading  a  revolution,  but  his  general 
attitude  is  such  as  to  make  it  more  probable  that  he 
had  in  mind  the  trying  experiences  which  he  foresaw 
his  followers  would  have  to  endure.  Discipleship 
was  dangerous! 

According  to  Luke  22:35  just  before  entering 
Gethsemane,  Jesus  contrasts  the  favor  the  disciples 
had  enjoyed  upon  their  mission  tours  about  the 
villages  of  Palestine  with  the  peril  of  their  present 
situation.     The  conversation  ran  like  this: 

Jesus:  When  I  sent  you  forth  without  purse  and  wallet 
and  shoes,  lacked  ye  anything  ? 

The  Disciples:  Nothing. 

Jesus:  But  now  he  that  hath  a  purse,  let  him  take  it 
and  hkewise  a  wallet;  and  he  that  hath  none  [that  is,  no 
sword]  let  him  sell  his  cloak  and  buy  a  sword. 

The  Disciples:  Lord,  behold,  here  are  two  swords. 

Jesus:  It  is  enough. 

Jesus  here  clearly  recognizes  that,  while  his  fol- 
lowers were  at  one  time  everywhere  welcome  and 
their  needs  supplied  by  a  friendly  pubhc,  now  the 
situation  is  different.  Powerful  enemies  are  plot- 
ting his  death.  He  says  he  is  about  to  be  "reck- 
oned among  the  transgressors,"  that  is,  treated  as  a 
criminal.  His  disciples  stand  in  danger  and  should 
prepare  for  self-defense.     Probably  he  meant  only, 


About  Hate,  War,  and  Non-Resistance    107 

"Be  on  your  guard!"  If  he  meant  literally  that 
they  were  to  buy  swords,  it  would  hardly  seem  that 
he  would  regard  two  swords  as  enough  for  the 
whole  group.  And,  again,  a  Hteral  instruction  to 
buy  swords  for  self-defense  would  not  seem  to 
accord  with  his  general  teaching  of  passiveness  and 
trust  in  the  Father. 

The  classic  passage  in  which  Jesus  refers  to  war 
is  Matt.  26:52,  "All  they  that  take  the  sword  shall 
perish  with  the  sword."  Even  here  it  is  not  certain 
that  he  intends  to  declare  a  universal  poHtical 
principle,  viz.,  that  all  civilizations  that  are  estab- 
lished by  war  will  ultimately  be  destroyed  by  war. 
It  may  be  that  he  is  thinking  of  the  situation  then 
present,  and  that  he  is  merely  counseHng  his  rash 
disciple  against  a  foolhardy  resistance,  merely  say- 
ing, "If  you  show  fight,  they  will  kill  you."  The 
broader  meaning,  however,  would  seem  not  to  be 
out  of  keeping  with  Jesus '  attitude  toward  physical 
violence,  and  may  throw  Ught  on  the  philosophy 
that  lies  back  of  his  counsels  of  non-resistance. 

In  all  the  gospels  an  account  is  given  of  some 
little  resistance  that  was  made  at  the  time  of  Jesus ' 
arrest.  The  story  is  told  with  increasing  fulness  in 
the  later  gospels.  In  Mark  (14:47)  a  bystander 
draws  a  sword  and  strikes  a  man  who  is  the  servant 
of  the  High  Priest,  cutting  off  one  of  his  ears.  In 
Matthew  (26:51)  it  is  still  merely  "one  of  those 
who  were  with  Jesus"  who  does  this.     But  Jesus' 


io8  What  Jesus  Taught 

remark,  already  discussed,  about  taking  the  sword 
and  perishing  by  the  sword,  is  added.  In  Luke 
(22:49-50)  the  disciples  see  that  Jesus  is  about  to 
be  arrested  and  ask  him  whether  they  shall  strike 
with  their  swords.  Before  Jesus  can  answer,  appar- 
ently, one  does  strike,  wounding  the  high  priest's 
servant  as  described  in  Mark  and  Matthew.  But 
Luke  knows  that  it  was  the  right  ear  that  was  cut 
off,  and  adds  that  after  mildly  reproving  the  swords- 
man, Jesus  touched  the  ear  of  the  wounded  man 
and  healed  him.  The  Fourth  Gospel  (18:10)  still 
more  definitely  says  that  the  sword  play  was  done 
by  Peter,  that  it  was  the  right  ear  that  was  cut  off, 
that  the  wounded  man's  name  was  Malchus,  and 
that  he  had  a  relative  who  was  the  third  of  those 
who  questioned  Peter  when  he  denied  Christ  (John 
18:26).  Jesus  orders  Peter  to  put  up  his  sword, 
accepting  his  arrest  passively  as  being  the  will 
of  God. 

There  remain  only  the  famous  "other  cheek" 
passages  (Matt.  5:38-42;  Luke  6:27-30)  and  such 
inferences  as  may  be  drawn  from  Jesus'  general 
attitude  toward  hfe  as  that  is  depicted  in  sayings 
not  connected  with  the  topic  war. 

The  "other  cheek"  passages  have  always  been 
troublesome.  To  many  it  has  seemed  that  they 
make  every  form  of  physical  coercion  impossible 
to  a  Christian;  that  a  Christian  may  plead,  beg, 
persuade,  argue,  pray,  buy  off,  propagandize,  pro- 


About  Hate,  War,  and  Non-Resistance    109 

test,  endure,  suffer,  educate,  but  that  he  may  never 
injure  another  man 's  body  in  his  effort  at  restraint. 
It  has  been  said  that  even  though  a  man  should  see 
his  wife  or  daughter  outraged  before  his  eyes  he 
dare  not  strike  a  blow  in  her  defense.  He  might 
protest  to  the  man  who  did  the  deed,  but  he  must 
not  hurt  him.  When  non-resistance  is  stated  in 
this  extreme  way  some  people  are  attracted  by  it. 
There  is  a  certain  appeal  about  the  thought  of  com- 
plete renunciation  of  all  self-assertion  and  entire 
submission  to  what  is  regarded  as  God 's  will.  On 
the  other  hand,  to  many  such  a  position  seems  a 
cowardly  shifting  of  responsibility.  It  has  been 
held,  however,  by  men  whose  courage  was  beyond 
question.  They  were  not  lacking  in  physical 
strength  had  they  chosen  to  fight,  nor  were  they 
afraid.  They  were  controlled  rather  by  a  religious 
conviction. ' 

A  mediating  view. — To  many  others,  however, 
such  a  view  seems  not  only  mistaken,  but  unethical. 
It  cannot  be  right,  it  is  argued,  to  leave  the  weak 
and  helpless  without  a  defender.  A  man  is  a 
slacker  who  permits  brutality  to  go  on  which  he 
might  stop.  Jesus,  it  is  pointed  out,  does  not 
recommend  a  neghgent  attitude  toward  injuries 
inflicted  upon  others.  He  only  tells  us  not  to  resist 
insults  or  injuries  to  ourselves.     He  was  angry,  it 

'  For  one  of  the  most  famous  statements  of  the  non-resistant 
view  see  Tolstoi,  My  Religion. 


no  What  Jesus  Taught 

is  said,  but  not  at  those  who  harmed  him  personally. 
He  was  angry  when  he  saw  others  wronged. 

Objections  to  this  view. — But  even  when  so 
stated  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance  is  not  wholly 
satisfying  to  one 's  reason,  however  it  may  appeal  to 
one's  religious  feeling.  It  is  obvious  that  even 
though  one  might  conceivably  be  willing  to  allow 
one 's  self  to  be  injured  or  killed  without  defending 
one 's  self,  one 's  responsibiHties  to  others  might  not 
permit  one  to  do  so.  A  father  is  in  duty  bound  to 
preserve  his  Life  and  health  as  far  as  lies  in  his  power 
for  his  family's  sake.  To  make  it  clearer,  let  us 
think  of  the  president  of  the  United  States.  His 
life  is  carefully  guarded.  He  could  not  practice 
non-resistance  even  as  limited  to  personal  injuries. 
For  him  to  yield  his  hfe  or  his  health  to  the  whim 
of  a  crank  or  the  hate  of  an  enemy  would  be  an 
irreparable  injustice  to  the  whole  American  people. 
In  a  smaller  way  each  one  of  us  is  responsible  to 
some  group;  we  are  in  duty  bound  to  keep  ourselves 
alive  and  fit.  This  is  not  selfishness,  but  its  oppo- 
site. When  the  good  of  the  group  demands  that  we 
submit  to  injury  or  death  or  even  that  we  inflict 
injury  and  death,  that  becomes  our  duty. 

Assumptions  of  non-resistants  and  the  objec- 
tions urged  against  them. — Let  us  take  up  what 
seem  to  be  some  fundamental  assumptions  of  those 
who  interpret  Jesus  as  a  pacifist  or  who  in  some 
other  way  arrive  at  the  non-resistance  conclusion. 


About  Hate,  War,  and  Non-Resistance    hi 

First  it  is  assumed  that  human  nature  when  not 
opposed  by  physical  violence  will  react  favorably, 
that  is,  if  the  injured  man  will  make  no  resistance 
the  aggressor  will  be  ashamed  and  cease  his  injuries. 
If  you  will  not  resist,  your  enemy  will  desist!  This 
claim  overlooks  the  obvious  lessons  of  history  and 
biology.  These  show  that  the  strong  have  imposed 
their  will  upon  the  weak  even  though  the  weak 
made  no  resistance.  The  principle  holds  both  with 
men  and  animals  that  to  make  one 's  self  a  sheep 
will  not  make  the  wolf  cease  to  be  a  wolf.  The  way 
to  safety  and  respect  is  not  through  helplessness. 
A  second  assumption  of  the  non-resistant  is  that 
if  man  will  refrain  from  physical  violence,  God  will 
interfere  in  some  way  in  his  behalf.  God  will  inter- 
vene and  prevent  the  aggressor  from  fulfilKng  his 
design.  There  are,  however,  plenty  of  instances  that 
show  that  God  does  not  do  this.  Compare  Judg. 
18:7-10,  27-29,  which  tells  how  the  Danites 
attracted  by  the  wealth  and  fertility  of  Laish,  a 
secluded  city  of  quiet,  peaceable  people,  attacked  and 
annihilated  it.  Defenselessness  was  no  protection 
against  cupidity  and  power,  and  God  did  not  inter- 
fere to  save  them.  Or  read  Josephus,  Antiquities 
xii.  6,  which  tells  how  on  one  occasion  the  Jews 
when  attacked  by  the  Syrians  made  no  resistance 
because  it  was  the  Sabbath  day.  They  hid  in 
caves  and  the  Syrians  smoked  them  to  death. 
Though  they  made  no  resistance,   God  did   not 


112  What  Jesus  Taught 

deliver  them,  and  a  thousand  Jews  were  killed 
that  day. 

A  third  assumption  is  that  of  the  supreme 
sacredness  of  human  life.  Whatever  happens,  it  is 
said,  we  must  not  take  the  life  of  a  human  being. 
Here  we  ought  to  think  clearly  about  what  we  mean 
by  "hfe."  In  this  sense  it  is  the  continuation  of 
conscious,  animate  existence.  There  are  other 
things,  as  we  have  already  said,  worth  more  than 
that.  Righteousness,  honor,  high  ideals,  and  the 
increase  of  the  significance  and  nobility  of  human 
life  in  general  are  worth  more.  It  is  still  true  that 
it  is  better  for  one  man  to  die  than  for  the  whole 
people  to  perish  (John  ii :  50;  18: 14).  It  is  better 
for  many  men  to  die  than  that  the  hfe  of  whole 
generations  in  the  future  should  be  degraded. 

The  truth  in  the  doctrine  of  non-resistance  and 
summary  of  objections. — There  are  two  grains  of 
truth  in  the  theory  of  non-resistance:  (a)  It  is  com- 
monly recognized  that  voluntary  morality  is  supe- 
rior to  enforced  morality.  Non-resistance  makes 
right  action  optional  with  the  evildoer,  not  compul- 
sory, (b)  Non-resistance  recognizes  that  there  is  a 
justice  in  the  universe  which  in  the  long  run 
punishes  wrong  action. 

To  a  certain  extent,  and  in  minor  matters,  the 
spirit  of  non-resistance  has  a  rightful  place.  It  is 
the  part  of  magnanimity  not  to  insist  that  every 
personal  offense  be  strictly  punished.     The  spirit 


About  Hate,  War,  and  Non-Resistance     113 

of  revenge  and  retaliation  reacts  harmfully  upon  the 
one  who  cherishes  it.  There  are,  however,  con- 
siderations that  make  a  strict  adherence  to  it  in 
common  life  impossible. 

1.  It  draws  an  artificial  line  between  physical 
and  intellectual  restraint.  If  non-resistance  is  to 
be  practiced  rigidly,  it  would  appear  that  it  must  not 
stop  at  mere  abstinence  from  physical  violence.  It 
is  not  clear  why  physical  restraint  should  be  for- 
bidden and  other  forms  of  restraint  allowed.  If  the 
evildoer  may  not  be  restrained  by  physical  force, 
why  may  he  be  by  ballot,  or  statute,  or  public 
opinion  ? 

2.  If  rigidly  observed,  even  as  limited  to  physi- 
cal violence,  it  becomes  itself  a  vice.  It  prevents 
the  protection  of  those  to  whom  protection  is  due 
by  those  from  whom  it  is  due.  There  can  be  no 
effective  interference  with  the  selfish  and  rapacious 
tendencies  of  men.  In  the  effort  to  avoid  inter- 
ference with  the  wrongdoing  of  some,  responsibility 
for  the  welfare  of  others  would  be  neglected. 

3.  The  assumptions  of  the  non-resistant  are 
flatly  opposed  to  fact.  Passivity  does  not  guaran- 
tee freedom  from  attack,  either  because  it  will 
touch  the  heart  of  the  invader  or  because  God  will 
interfere  to  protect  the  man  or  the  nation  that 
refuses  to  strike.  God  commits  to  us  the  task  of 
making  the  world  what  it  ought  to  be.  His  will 
will  never  be  done  unless  we  see  to  it  that  it  is  done. 


114  What  Jesus  Taught 

Might  does  not  make  right,  but  right  must  be 
backed  by  might  or  right  will  not  prevail.  The 
resort  to  physical  force  is  the  last  resort,  but  there 
must  always  be  a  physical  force  to  resort  to  if  neces- 
sity arise.  Back  of  all  our  easy-going,  kindly  Kfe 
there  are  hard,  grim  facts  that  only  the  initiated 
know.  One  of  our  presidents  has  said,  "The  foun- 
dation of  law  and  order  is  the  judge  and  the  police- 
man." This  is  not  an  argument  for  brutality,  for 
inhuman  methods  of  punishment  for  criminals,  or 
for  aggressive  war.  It  is  the  acceptance  of  the  facts 
of  experience.  In  the  Kingdom  of  God  there  will 
be  no  need  for  force,  but  if  the  friends  of  the  King- 
dom never  use  force,  there  will  never  be  any 
Kingdom  of  God! 

Summary  and  evaluation  of  the  teaching. — The 
amount  of  teaching  on  these  topics  reported  by  the 
Synoptic  Gospels  is  not  large,  but  full  enough  to 
give  us  an  idea  of  what  Jesus  stood  for.  He  urged 
the  displacement  of  hate  by  kindly  feehng,  he  gave 
no  specific  teaching  about  war,  though  his  general 
attitude  would  seem  to  have  been  such  as  to  have 
made  him  opposed  to  it,  and  he  beHeved  in  non- 
resistance. 

The  value  of  the  teaching  of  Jesus  regarding 
hate,  war,  and  non-resistance  lies  in  its  substitution 
of  positive  and  constructive  attitudes  for  negative 
and  destructive  ones.  Love  is  better  than  hate, 
peace  is  better  than  war,  and  non-resistance  is  bet- 


About  Hate,  War,  and  Non-Resistance     115 

ter  than  aggression.  Yet,  while  fully  accepting 
these  as  ideal  standards,  we  must  admit  that  the 
passive,  non-resistant  attitude  is  not  altogether 
practicable,  either  in  individual  or  in  social  life. 
That  is  to  say,  it  represents  a  principle  rather  than 
a  rule.  We  need  to  avoid  overstatements  both  as 
respects  non-resistance  (which  would  lead  us  into 
extreme  pacifism),  and  as  respects  individual  and 
national  assertiveness  (which  would  lead  us  into 
the  philosophy  of  Nietzsche).  Confronted  as  we 
are  in  modern  society  with  complex  situations,  with 
relationships  to  other  nations,  with  perverse,  and 
often  perverted  and  criminal  persons  and  policies 
to  deal  with,  a  supine  surrender  to  things  as  they 
are,  or  to  the  desires  of  unsocial  individuals  and 
groups  would  be  immoral.  The  use  of  force  is  often 
necessary,  and  the  very  existence  of  a  state  or 
government  of  any  kind  presupposes  the  possibiUty 
of  its  exercise.  Thus  the  extreme  non-resistant 
becomes  an  amiable  anarchist,  since  if  his  views  were 
carried  into  practice  none  of  the  present  forms  of 
government  could  continue. 

On  the  other  hand  we  must  avoid  the  ultra- 
conservative  attitude  that  assumes  that  "whatever 
is,  is  right."  We  are  not  committed  to  the  preserva- 
tion and  perpetuation  of  the  customs  and  the 
institutions  into  which  we  were  born  merely  because 
they  were  here  when  we  arrived.  They  have  a 
right  to  continue  to  exist  only  by  virtue  of  their 


ii6  What  Jesus  Taught 

serviceability  and  must  yield  when  better  forms 
and  methods  are  discovered.  If  prisons  can  be 
humanized,  if  unhygienic  popular  customs  can  be 
eKminated,  if  industrial  conditions  can  be  amelio- 
rated, if  racial  animosities  can  be  turned  into 
friendhness,  if  war  can  be  done  away  with,  if 
governments  can  be  improved,  by  all  means  let  us 
support  such  changes.  To  be  merely  a  "stand- 
patter," stoutly  defending  the  status  quo  would 
constitute  one  an  undesirable  citizen. 

The  adoption  of  a  middle  course  between 
extreme  pacifism  and  ultra-conservatism  naturally 
fails  to  satisfy  the  representatives  of  either  of  these 
extremes.  Therefore,  the  discussion  of  this  topic 
of  hate,  war,  and  non-resistance  is  likely  to  arouse 
lively  interest.  Probably  a  few  will  take  the  non- 
resistant  attitude,  but  most  rebel  against  it  and 
present  arguments  against  it.  It  will  be  remarked 
that  Jesus  did  not  practice  non-resistance  when  he 
drove  the  traders  from  the  Temple.  Some  will  meet 
this  by  supposing  that  he  used  the  "whip  of  small 
cords"  only  on  the  animals,  which  will  again  not 
satisfy  the  objectors,  who  will  say  that  the  animals 
were  innocent  of  any  wrong.  Others  again  may 
suppose  that  Jesus  did  not  use  the  whip  at  all  on 
either  animals  or  men.  What  then  was  its  pur- 
pose ?  To  serve  merely  as  a  symbol  of  force  and 
authority  ?  But  why  would  Jesus  employ  such  a 
symbol  if  he  did  not  beheve  in  the  use  of  force  ? 


About  Hate,  War,  and  Non-Resistance    117 

This  topic  is  one  of  the  most  searching  and  the 
most  fruitful  because  it  compels  thinking  on  the 
normative  value  of  the  ideas  of  Jesus. ^  Out  of  it 
is  Hkely  slowly  to  emerge  the  perception  that  the 
mere  fact  that  Jesus  held  a  certain  view,  or  that  we 
believe  he  did,  is  not  in  itself  sufficient  to  commit 
us  to  the  same  view;  that  one  may  differ  with 
Jesus  on  some  points  and  still  be  a  Christian.  Thus 
it  helps  to  make  clearer  to  us  our  task  and  responsi- 
biHty  to  think  and  to  build. 

'  See  the  author's  article,  "Did  Jesus  Believe  in  Demons?  " 
Biblical  World,  July,  1920,  p.  376,  for  account  of  an  experiment 
conducted  during  the  war  with  a  group  of  eighty-six  men, 
Christian  laymen  and  ministers,  to  whom  this  question  was  put: 
"If  you  became  convinced  that  Jesus  was  a  pacifist,  what  would 
you  do  ?  "  Forty-four  replied  in  substance,  "I'd  be  a  pacifist, 
too."  Thirteen  answered  ambiguously,  and  twenty-nine  declared 
they  would  go  on  supporting  the  war. 


CHAPTER  VII 
WHAT  JESUS  TAUGHT  ABOUT  DEMOCRACY 

Jesus  and  democracy. — Conceivably  Jesus 
might  have  given  a  plan  for  democratic  govern- 
ment. There  had  been  examples  of  government 
by  the  people  before  his  time.  The  Greeks  in 
Athens  had  centuries  before  worked  out  a  democ- 
racy. The  Roman  Republic  had  given  way  to  the 
Empire  only  a  generation  before  Jesus'  birth. 
But  Jesus,  Uke  the  race  from  which  he  sprang,  had 
religion,  not  politics,  for  his  life-passion.  In  de- 
scribing those  who  should  enter  the  Kingdom,  and 
in  directing  the  activities  of  his  disciples  in  the 
period  that  would  intervene  before  the  setting  up  of 
the  Kingdom,  Jesus  emphasized  moral  and  divine, 
rather  than  poHtical,  forces.  As  the  gospels  repre- 
sent him,  the  ideal  civilization  of  which  he  taught 
was  to  be  realized  not  through  a  long,  slow  process 
of  gradual  improvement  in  social  conditions, 
wrought  out  by  study  and  experiment,  but  by  a 
divine  interference  in  human  affairs  through  which 
Jesus  would  become  the  supreme  ruler  over  a  world 
of  men  of  the  Kingdom  type,  and  all  offending 
elements  would  be  eliminated. 

It  is  obvious  then  that  we  are  not  to  expect  an 
elaborate  outline  of  democracy  in  Jesus'  teaching. 

ii8 


About  Democracy  119 

What  we  may  fairly  do  is  to  raise  the  question 
whether  in  Jesus '  words  anywhere  we  find  expressed 
principles  which  anticipate  those  embodied  in  the 
modern  conception  of  democracy.  We  need  then, 
first  to  clarify  our  minds  as  to  the  outstanding 
ideas  represented  in  democratic  government. 

FUNDAMENTAL   CONCEPTIONS   OF   DEMOCRACY 

Lincoln's  phrase  "government  of  the  people,  by 
the  people,  for  the  people"  has  become  a  classic. 
So,  too,  has  that  of  the  Declaration  of  Independ- 
ence, "governments  derive  their  just  powers  from 
the  consent  of  the  governed."  The  Great  War 
drew  the  line  sharply  between  autocracy  and 
democracy.  Both  terms  are  derived  from  the 
Greek.  From  autos,  "self, "  and  kratos, "strength," 
we  have  "autocratic,"  "having  strength  or  power 
in  one's  self,"  which  is  used  of  a  ruler  who  has 
unlimited  power  in  himself  and  is  responsible  to  no 
one  but  himself.  From  demos,  "people,"  and  kra- 
tos, "strength,"  we  have  "democratic,"  which  is 
used  of  a  government  in  which  the  power  is  located 
in  the  people.  We  may  say  that  autocracy  is 
government  by  Himself,  democracy  is  government 
by  Ourselves.  It  is  the  difference  between  He  and 
We,  Of  democracy  in  this  governmental  sense 
Jesus  has  nothing  to  say.  But  in  respect  to  some 
of  the  principles  and  results  of  democracy  Jesus 
gives  some  of  his  finest  teachings. 


I20  What  Jesus  Taught 

I.  Consideration  of  community  good. — It  is  one 

of  the  commonest  of  sayings  now  that  we  ought  to 
live  for  others.  While  we  may  not  be  pharisaical 
enough  to  assert  that  selfishness  has  died  within  us, 
we  do  constantly  affirm  that  consideration  of  com- 
munity good  ought  to  be  the  controlling  principle 
of  individual  living.  In  the  same  way  we  assert 
that  in  state  affairs  thought  must  be  taken  for 
world-betterment  and  not  merely  for  national 
aggrandizement.  If  there  were  communication 
and  relationship  between  earth  and  other  worlds,  we 
should  doubtless  be  required  to  think,  not  only  of 
what  seemed  for  the  good  of  our  planet,  but  of  how 
the  inhabitants  of  other  worlds  would  be  affected 
by  our  action.  Democracy  thus  recognizes  the 
complex  network  of  social  relationships,  and  would 
have  consideration  for  social  good  be  the  supreme 
law.  Whence  have  we  learned  this  altruistic  insist- 
ence ?  Partly,  at  least,  from  the  teaching  of  Jesus. 
Consider  Mark  10:42-45,  and  Jesus'  teaching  that 
the  governing  principle  of  his  own  life  was  consider- 
ation for  others,  and  that  this  was  to  take  the  place 
of  personal  ambition  among  his  followers.  The 
way  Jesus  reacted  in  the  presence  of  large  bodies  of 
men  is  an  indication  of  the  same  spirit  (Mark  6:34; 
Matt.  9:36;  14:14).  A  great  crowd  is  an  appeal- 
ing sight,  but  the  appeal  it  makes  depends  upon  the 
kind  of  man  who  is  looking  at  it.  It  may  present 
itself  to  him  as  something  to  be  swayed  to  laughter 


About  Democracy  121 

and  tears,  and  manipulated  to  his  own  glorification 
or  the  success  of  his  cause.  He  may  easily  think  of 
it  as  a  business  opportunity.  To  the  parasitic 
classes  of  society,  the  vicious  and  the  criminal,  the 
assembling  of  large  numbers  of  people  is  always  a 
signal  for  mobilization.  Look  out  for  pickpockets 
on  circus  day!  When  Jesus  saw  a  crowd,  however, 
he  seems  to  have  felt  a  surge  of  friendliness  and 
desire  to  help.  This  merging  of  one 's  own  interests 
in  the  interest  of  the  community  is  essential  to 
democracy. 

Upon  consideration,  however,  it  becomes  obvi- 
ous that  the  principle  that  all  action  should  be  con- 
trolled by  consideration  of  its  effect  upon  others  is 
not  a  universal  solvent  for  life's  problems.  For, 
first,  experience  shows  us  that  we  cannot  forecast 
infallibly  how  others  will  be  affected  by  our  action. 
And  secondly,  we  are  unable  for  any  great  length 
of  time  to  ignore  ourselves  and  act  without  self- 
interest.  We  rise  to  heroic  moments  of  self-forget- 
fulness;  we  may  even  habituate  ourselves  to  a  plan 
of  action  which  is  at  first  distasteful  to  us  out  of 
consideration  for  others,  but  we  are  by  nature  so 
constituted  that  we  can  no  more  absolutely  banish 
self-consideration  than  we  can  stop  breathing. 
Even  when  we  undertake  the  most  unselfish  or  non- 
remunerative  tasks,  become  settlement  workers,  or 
foreign  missionaries,  or  nurses,  we  can  never  be 
quite  sure  that  the  deciding  consideration  was  not 


122  What  Jesus  Taught 

.after  all  one  of  self-interest,  that  we  should  be  hap- 
piest in  doing  these  things,  and  unhappy  in  refusing 
to  do  them.  Thinking  of  this  saves  us  from  the 
self-congratulatory  and  holier-than-thou  attitude 
that  is  a  snare  to  those  who  go  into  work  which  they 
regard  as  entaihng  personal  sacrifice. 

2.  The  value  of  the  individual. — These  consider- 
ations lead  us  to  another  great  principle  of  democ- 
racy, which  is  hkewise  one  of  the  teachings  of  Jesus, 
viz.,  the  right  and  importance  of  the  individual. 
This  is  a  corollary,  not  a  contradiction  of  the  pre- 
ceding. If  you  are  to  control  your  action  by  con- 
sideration for  its  effect  upon  another  or  others,  the 
reason  for  it  is  their  significance  as  persons.  But 
you  are  a  person,  too,  and  therefore  of  significance 
also.  A  healthy  recognition  of  one's  own  signifi- 
cance is  necessary  if  one  is  to  be  of  much  usefulness 
to  others.  A  man  must  know  that  he  is  good  for 
something  if  he  is  going  to  be  good  for  much. 
Democracy  recognizes  the  significance  of  the  units 
of  society.  It  stands  for  the  full  realization  of  life 
for  every  man  through  the  development  of  all  his 
latent  capacities.  It  believes  in  the  raising  of  the 
general  tone  of  society  through  the  improvement  of 
the  life  of  each  individual  as  well  as  the  converse. 
Jesus,  too,  put  this  emphasis  upon  the  value  of  the 
individual.  Nothing  is  more  precious  to  a  man 
than  the  possibility  of  self-realization  (Mark  8:36; 
Matt.  16: 26).     The  Sabbath  exists  for  human  wel- 


About  Democracy  123 

fare  (Mark  2:27;  cf.  also  Matt.  12:11-12).  Each 
member  of  the  Kingdom  is  sacred,  and  acts  of  kind- 
ness to  them  will  be  rewarded  (Matt.  10:42),  while 
injuries  offered  them  will  be  fearfully  punished 
(Mark  9:42;  Matt.  18:6-10;  Luke  17:1-2).  In 
one  of  his  most  famous  sayings  he  calls  men  to 
discipleship,  offering  individual  freedom,  peace, 
inner  harmony  (Matt.  11:28-30).  The  stories  of 
heaUngs,  too,  with  which  the  gospels  abound  indi- 
cate Jesus'  interest  in  removing  men's  handicaps 
and  giving  them  a  better  chance. 

3.  Equal  opportunity. — This  last  leads  us  to 
another  fundamental  doctrine  of  democracy,  viz., 
that  of  equality  of  opportunity.  No  scheme  of 
government  could  be  devised  which  would  turn  out 
citizens  of  precisely  the  same  grade,  as  a  watch  fac- 
tory may  make  its  product  of  uniform  quality. 
Too  many  and  too  uncertain  factors  enter  into  the 
making  of  human  character  to  allow  that.  More- 
over, individuality  itself  necessitates  native  inequal- 
ity. Nevertheless,  we  do  know  that  men  are 
products  just  as  everything  else  is,  and  that  if  sub- 
jected to  given  influences  men  will  turn  out  in  the 
large  in  a  similar  way.  Thus  climate,  occupations, 
and  the  topography  of  a  country  shape  the  charac- 
ter of  its  inhabitants.  So,  too,  do  its  government 
and  institutions.  A  whole  generation  of  young 
minds  may  be  molded  just  as  the  mind  of  one  child 
may  be.     Thus  while  it  is  not  possible  or  desirable 


124  What  Jesus  Taught 

to  turn  out  citizens  of  a  uniform  type,  a  certain 
standard  of  attainment  may  be  reached.  This  is 
made  possible  by  the  guaranty  of  equaHty  of  oppor- 
tunity. 

When  we  speak  of  equahty  of  opportunity  in  a 
democracy,  we  mean  that  every  person  shall  have 
access  to  the  agencies  that  tend  to  develop  to  the 
fullest  extent  his  native  capacities.  Thus  it  means 
that  education  to  an  advanced  stage  shall  be  made 
free  and  compulsory;  that  there  shall  be  elasticity 
in  the  class  divisions  of  society  so  that  persons  may 
move  about  from  class  to  class  as  their  ability  may 
dictate.  Thus  democracy  means  negatively  the 
removal  of  handicaps,  and  positively  the  promotion 
of  contact  with  developmental  influences.  In  two 
phases  of  Jesus '  teaching  similar  tendencies  may  be 
seen:  first,  in  his  condemnation  of  the  enslave- 
ment of  men  by  insistence  upon  triviaKties  of  form, 
and  his  emphasis  upon  fundamentals  (Mark  2:27; 
Matt.  15:1-20;  23:23;  Luke  11:42).  Thus  Jesus, 
by  the  removal  of  handicaps,  anticipated  one  of  the 
great  factors  of  democratic  equality  of  opportunity. 
The  other,  promotion  of  contact  with  develop- 
mental agencies,  he  taught  by  his  own  example  of 
free  association  with  men  of  various  classes.  In  his 
own  personality  he  possessed  what  we  see  now  to 
have  been  one  of  the  most  significant  developmental 
agencies  the  world  has  known.  Like  Socrates,  he 
gave  himself  freely  to  all  so  that  any  man  who 


About  Democracy  125 

would  might  have  a  chance  to  share  his  inspiring, 
liberating  message  and  feel  the  influence  of  his  per- 
sonal power.  In  doing  this  he  frequently  stepped 
beyond  the  bounds  of  what  was  in  those  days  con- 
sidered propriety  (Mark  2:15-16;  Matt.  9:10,  11; 
Luke  5:29-30;   7:34;   19:7). 

4.  Kindly  interest  in  foreigners. — ^Democracy  is 
marked  also  by  its  attitude  of  welcome  and  appreci- 
ation toward  foreigners;  not  toward  tourists  and 
distinguished  visitors  only,  but  toward  the  immi- 
grant and  his  children.  His  different  birthplace, 
language,  and  customs  do  not  make  him  unwelcome 
or  despised.  He  is  taken  into  the  great  democratic 
family,  his  children  share  with  the  native-born  the 
advantages  of  education,  and  both  he  and  they 
are  free  to  rise  as  high  in  the  world  as  their  natural 
abihties  will  take  them.  America  is  up  to  date  the 
most  striking  example  of  this  free  intermingUng  of 
nationalities.  It  is  not  likely,  however,  to  be  the 
last  one,  though  its  undeveloped  natural  resources 
may  for  a  good  while  continue  to  make  it  the 
most  attractive  goal  for  emigration.  But  that  free- 
dom of  movement  from  one  continent  to  another 
which  modern  transportation  and  social  conditions 
stimulate,  and  which  has  been  so  marked  within 
recent  years,  we  may  expect  to  see  continually 
augmented. 

During  the  world-war  thousands  and  millions  of 
men  crossed  the  ocean  who  would  never  have  done 


126  What  Jesus  Taught 

so  under  normal  conditions.  They  learned  the 
ways  and  languages  of  foreign  countries  and  caught 
an  understanding  of  their  ideals.  All  this  tends  to 
break  down  provincialism,  chauvinism,  and  nation- 
alistic prejudices  and  create  world-consciousness. 
All  of  us  are  thinking  internationally  now  in  a  way 
we  never  did  before.  This  international  interest 
was  implicit  in  democracy  always,  but  the  condi- 
tions of  the  world  at  present  bring  it  to  conscious 
and  constant  expression. 

We  have  already  noticed  that  on  this  point  the 
gospels  represent  different  emphases.  Mark  and 
Matthew  ascribe  to  Jesus  a  nationalistic  feeUng  that 
is  softened  by  Luke,  though  all  three  record  near 
the  end  instructions  for  universal  evangelization 
(Mark  16:15;  Matt  28:19;  Luke  24:47).  Accord- 
ing to  Luke,  then,  Jesus  had  a  distinctly  friendly 
attitude  toward  non-Jews  and  more  than  once  took 
occasion  to  compare  Jew  and  Gentile  in  a  way 
unfavorable  to  the  Jew  (Luke  4:25-27;  10:31-36; 
17:17-18;  7:9;  but  cf.  Matt.  8:10).  In  so  far 
then  as  Jesus  surmounted  national  prejudices  and 
felt  an  affection  for  and  desire  to  serve  men  of 
other  nationahties  than  his  own,  he  exemplified 
another  of  the  leading  principles  of  democracy,  i.e., 
international  and  interracial  friendhness,  the  wel- 
coming of  the  foreign-born  to  the  same  range  of 
advantage  and  opportunity  we  create  for  ourselves 
and  our  children. 


About  Democracy  127 

We  have  examined  the  Synoptic  Gospels  once 
more  to  see  what  in  the  teaching  of  Jesus  corre- 
sponded to  the  ideas  common  now  to  democratic 
thinking.  Taking  the  four  topics,  consideration  of 
community  good  as  a  deciding  factor  in  conduct, 
the  importance  and  significance  of  the  individual, 
equality  of  opportunity,  and  friendly  attitude 
toward  foreigners,  we  find  hints  in  the  teaching  of 
Jesus  which  indicate  that  he  held  to  these  funda- 
mental principles  of  democracy,  and  which  justify 
us  in  calling  him  the  world's  Great  Democrat. 


CHAPTER  VIII 
WHAT  JESUS  TAUGHT  ABOUT  RELIGION 

Religion  in  Palestine. — In  Palestine  religion 
seems  always  to  have  been  the  topic  of  supreme 
interest.  The  wars  the  Jews  fought  there  were 
mainly  religious  wars.  The  greatness  of  Israel's 
great  men  nearly  always  was  in  some  way  connected 
with  their  rehgion.  Yet  we  must  remember  that 
Israel  did  not  have  a  monopoly  of  religion;  all  the 
surrounding  nations  had  their  religions,  too.  We 
should  be  able  to  infer  this,  even  if  we  had  no  direct 
evidence,  for  historians  and  anthropologists  find 
that  rehgion  of  some  sort  exists  in  every  society. 
It  has  been  said  that  mankind  is  "incurably 
religious."  Men  seem  always  to  be  groping  for 
God.  Their  inherent  religious  impulse  expresses 
itself  in  crude  or  cultured  ways  according  to  the 
stage  of  their  civilization  and  in  keeping  with  their 
national  character.  We  have,  however,  some  few 
remains  of  these  ancient  neighboring  religions  and 
considerable  reference  to  them  in  the  Bible.  These 
references  show  that  the  Jews  regarded  them  as 
base  and  degrading.  Doubtless  they  contained 
some  noble  elements,  however.  It  may  be  asked 
why  these  religions  died,  while  Judaism  lived  on. 
They  have  wholly  disappeared,  as  have  the  people 
128 


About  Religion  129 

who  held  them.     Yet  the  Jews  and  the  Jewish 
religion  survive.     Why  ? 

Jesus  a  great  teacher  of  religion. — Jesus  is 
accepted  by  Christians  generally  as  the  world's 
greatest  teacher  of  religion.  This  conviction  may 
exist,  however,  without  its  being  based  upon  a 
thorough  study  of  his  religious  teaching.  Jesus 
founded  a  movement  which  at  the  present  time 
modifies  the  religious  thought  of  every  third  per- 
son on  earth.  What  explains  the  extraordinary 
impulse  he  gave  ?  Did  he  teach  something  that 
will  fire  us  with  enthusiasm  as  it  fired  people  twenty 
centuries  ago  ?  Can  we  present  an  appeal  today 
that  will  grip  as  his  appeal  gripped  ?  Much  of 
what  Jesus  says  about  religion  is  in  connection  with 
his  teaching  about  the  Kingdom,  already  studied. 
He  never  uses  the  term  religion  itself.  It  occurs 
rarely  in  the  Bible,  anyway,  Acts  26:5;  Col.  2: 18; 
Jas.  1 :  26,  27,  only  in  the  Greek;  cf.  also  Gal.  i :  13, 
14  in  the  English  translation. 

THE   TEACHING   IN  MARK 

Summary  of  Mark's  report. — Taking  up  Jesus' 
teaching  concerning  rehgion  as  it  is  presented  in 
Mark  we  find  that  Jesus  demands  repentance  and 
acceptance  of  his  views  of  the  near  approach  of  the 
Kingdom  (1:14).  Repentance  we  may  define  as 
regret,  resulting  in  revised  behavior.  The  demand 
for  national  repentance  was  in  keeping  with  the 


130  What  Jesus  Taught 

current  conviction  that  if  Israel  would  for  one  day 
do  Jehovah's  will  the  Messiah  would  come.  Call- 
ing Peter  and  Andrew  to  discipleship,  Jesus  says 
they  shall  become  "fishers  of  men,"  that  is,  men 
who  will  present  the  Kingdom  appeal  to  other  men 
(1:17).  Jesus  defends  his  association  with  non- 
respectable  people  by  the  remark  that  they  were 
the  sort  who  needed  him  (2:15-17).  Being  ques- 
tioned as  to  his  disciple 's  disregard  of  the  customary 
days  of  fasting,  he  says  that  it  would  not  be  appro- 
priate to  their  present  joyous  feeHngs,  thus  setting 
up  the  principle  of  sincerity,  viz.,  that  one's 
religious  ceremonies  should  correspond  to  one's 
actual  feeling  (2:18-22).  He  justified  what  the 
scrupulous  Pharisees  regarded  as  Sabbath  desecra- 
tion by  the  far-reaching  principle  of  consideration 
for  human  good  (2:23-27;  3:1-6).  For  so  pro- 
foundly sensible  and  humanitarian  a  view  as  this 
ecclesiastics  plotted  his  death !  (3:6.)  He  regards 
those  who  do  God's  will,  i.e.,  the  Kingdom-people, 
as  more  closely  related  to  him  than  those  of  his 
own  flesh  and  blood  (3:31-35).  In  reply  to  the 
criticism  that  some  of  his  disciples  were  eating  with- 
out the  customary  religious  ceremony  of  washing 
their  hands,  he  denounces  those  who  are  clever  at 
evading  natural  duties  under  the  pretense  of  being 
devoted  to  religion,  and  enunciates  the  principle 
that  real  degradation  is  spiritual,  being  promoted, 
not  by  neglect  of  some  trivial  ceremony,  but  by  the 


About  Religion  131 

cherishing  of  impure  and  vicious  thoughts  (7 : 5-23). 
Jesus  predicts  his  own  suffering,  rejection,  death, 
and  resurrection,  and  challenges  his  followers  to 
follow  him  in  giving  up  their  lives  (8:31-38).  At 
Capernaum,  Jesus  is  led  by  a  dispute  between  the 
disciples  to  rebuke  their  egotism  by  the  remark 
that  the  self-seeker  would  get  the  lowest  place 
(9:33-35).  This  is  the  obverse  of  his  emphasis 
upon  humihty  as  a  path  to  promotion,  which  is 
elsewhere  given  in  both  its  phases  (Luke  14:11; 
18:14).  In  answer  to  a  question  about  divorce 
Jesus  traces  marriage  to  the  original  creation  of 
human  beings,  basing  his  argument  upon  the  use  of 
the  words  "male  and  female"  in  Gen.  i :  27,  his  con- 
clusion being  that  since  at  the  beginning  God  created 
a  human  pair,  it  was  adulterous  for  married  couples 
to  separate  and  marry  members  of  other  couples. 
The  permission  to  do  this  granted  by  the  Mosaic 
Law  he  regards  as  a  concession  to  the  stubborn  and 
intractable  dispositions  of  men  (10:2-12).  Jesus 
evidently  thought  of  monogamy  as  the  original  form 
of  marriage.  Questioned  by  a  wealthy  man  as  to 
the  way  to  secure  eternal  life,  Jesus  mentions  six  of 
the  Ten  Commandments.  Upon  learning  that  the 
man  had  kept  these  Jesus  suggests  that  he  give 
away  his  wealth  and  become  one  of  his  disciples. 
The  man  is  unable  or  unwilling  to  do  this  and  goes 
sadly  away.  Jesus  remarks  upon  the  difficulty  rich 
men  have  in  entering  the  Kingdom  and  asserts  that 


132  What  Jesus  Taught 

all  who  make  any  sacrifice  for  the  Kingdom 's  sake 
will  be  fully  repaid  even  before  the  Kingdom  is 
estabhshed,  while  after  it  is  estabhshed  they  will 
share  in  its  eternal  blessedness  (10:23-31).  In 
regard  to  those  who  are  eager  for  prominence  and 
leadership  Jesus  again  says  that  among  his  disciples 
such  ambition  is  to  be  curbed  by  giving  the  self- 
seeker  the  most  menial  sort  of  service.  His  own 
purpose,  he  said,  was  not  to  dominate  men,  but  to 
serve  them,  and  to  die  for  their  sakes.  He  regarded 
his  death  as  a  necessary  part  of  the  Kingdom  pro- 
gram. Without  it  the  Kingdom  would  not  come, 
and  the  Kingdom-people  would  not  be  rescued  from 
the  then  present  age  to  the  age  of  blessedness  to  be 
introduced  when  the  Kingdom  was  completely 
established  (10:35-36).  Jesus  regards  undoubting 
confidence  in  prayer  as  a  guaranty  that  the  thing 
prayed  for  will  occur  (11:23-24).  God's  forgive- 
ness of  a  man 's  sins  is  conditioned  upon  that  man 's 
forgiveness  of  those  who  have  wronged  him  (11: 
24-25).  Going  into  the  Temple,  Jesus  violently 
interferes  with  the  business  being  carried  on  there, 
and  denounces  it  as  a  misuse  of  a  place  intended  for 
worship  (11:15-18).  Questioned  as  to  his  right  to 
do  this,  he  astutely  confounds  his  critics  and  refuses 
to  answer  (i  i :  27-33)  •  When  enemies  try  to  induce 
him  to  show  disloyalty  to  the  Roman  emperor  he 
evades  the  negative  answer  they  were  expecting 
from  him,  and  replies  in  a  fashion  that  leaves  no 


About  Religion  133 

handle  for  criticism  by  demanding  the  fulfilment  of 
both  political  and  religious  duty  (12:13-17),  He 
thus  refuses  to  commit  himself  as  to  what  course 
should  be  followed  in  this  particular  case  where 
poHtical  and  religious  duties  were  thought  to  con- 
flict, leaving  that  to  their  own  moral  judgment  to 
decide,  but  implying  that  both  duties  were  real. 
He  asserts  that  in  the  next  life  human  beings  will 
be  like  angels  (sexless?)  and  marriage  unknown. 
That  there  is  a  future  life  he  argues  from  Exod.  3 : 6, 
holding  that  the  statement  "I  am  the  God  of  Abra- 
ham and  the  God  of  Isaac  and  the  God  of  Jacob" 
indicates  that  these  patriarchs  who  had  lived  long 
before  were  then  still  alive  (12:18-27).  The  com- 
mands to  love  God  and  one 's  neighbor  Jesus  regards 
as  the  most  important  in  the  Jewish  law  (12 :  28,  34). 
He  denounces  the  business  cruelty  and  religious 
ostentation  of  the  Scribes  (12:38-40),  while  he 
praises  a  widow  who  gave  out  of  her  poverty  to  the 
Temple  offering  (12:41-44).  The  disciples  may 
expect  to  be  arrested,  beaten,  and  put  on  trial, 
hated  by  members  of  their  own  family,  but  are  to 
be  steadfast  and  without  anxiety,  trusting  the  Holy 
Spirit  to  give  them  the  words  they  shall  use  in 
their  defense  (13 : 9-13).  At  the  Last  Supper  Jesus 
again  alludes  to  his  death  and  its  connection  with 
the  Kingdom  program  (14: 24).  The  closing  scenes 
of  Mark's  Gospel  relate  action  rather  than  record 
teaching.     They   show   though,   how   to    the   last 


134  What  Jesus  Taught 

Jesus  lived  true  to  his  religion.  The  scene  in  Geth- 
semane  shows  how  he  followed  out  his  own  em- 
phasis upon  doing  the  will  of  God  (14:32-42).  He 
readily  submits  to  arrest  because  he  regards  it 
as  a  part  of  the  foreordained  program  of  his  life 
(14:43-49).  He  asserts  his  messiahship  before  the 
Jewish  Council  (14:61-62).  At  the  end  his  sense 
of  God's  support,  which  doubtless  had  been  the 
secret  of  the  strength  of  his  hfe,  temporarily 
failed  him  (15:34).  After  the  resurrection  he 
sends  out  his  followers  to  Christianize  the  world 

(16:15). 

Recapitulation. — In  summarizing  what  Jesus 
taught  about  religion  as  it  is  preserved  in  Mark  we 
may  say  that  he  is  never  represented  as  discussing 
religion  formally  and  never  uses  that  term,  that 
much  of  what  he  thought  and  taught  about  religion 
must  be  gathered  from  his  actions,  and  that  his 
teaching  about  religion  was  an  integral  part  of  his 
teaching  about  the  Kingdom.  ReHgion,  to  Jesus, 
meant  repentance,  belief  in  his  Kingdom  message, 
attempt  to  interest  others  in  the  Kingdom,  associa- 
tion with  irreligious  and  non-respectable  people  for 
the  sake  of  helping  them,  sincerity  in  rehgious  cere- 
monial, consideration  for  human  good  rather  than 
meticulous  observance  of  legal  rules  as  the  control- 
ling principle  of  behavior,  the  sharing  in  the  doing 
of  God 's  will  as  constituting  a  closer  bond  than  that 
of  kinship,  inward,  spiritual  rightness  as  contrasted 


About  Religion  135 

with  religious  pretense,  his  own  death  as  a  necessary 
event  in  the  establishment  of  the  Kingdom,  and 
that  of  the  disciples  as  a  probable  one,  suppression 
of  selfish  ambition,  preservation  of  the  marriage  tie, 
keeping  of  the  Ten  Commandments,  sacrifice  for 
the  Kingdom 's  sake,  prayer  with  undoubting  confi- 
dence, forgiveness  of  others  as  the  basis  of  one's 
own  forgiveness,  reverence  for  sacred  places,  fulfil- 
ment of  both  civil  and  religious  duties,  a  belief 
in  the  future  life,  whole-hearted  love  to  God  and 
one's  neighbor,  self-denying  giving,  steadfastness 
and  freedom  from  anxiety  in  danger. 

THE   TEACHING  IN   MATTHEW 

Summary  of  Matthew's  report. — The  first  sen- 
tence Matthew  ascribes  to  Jesus  (3:15),  though 
not  perhaps  a  distinctly  rehgious  teaching,  has  to 
do  with  a  religious  ceremony.  John  the  Baptist 
recognizes  Jesus'  superiority  before  the  baptism 
(for  another  view,  cf.  John  1:33)  and  is  reluctant 
to  baptize  him.  Jesus  admits  the  force  of  John's 
objection  but  argues  that  submission  to  baptism  on 
his  part  is  exemplary,  though  unnecessary.  This 
passage  has  been  thought  to  be  an  early  Christian 
attempt  to  meet  the  difficulty  of  explaining  why 
Jesus  was  baptized,  showing  that  in  his  case  it  had 
no  reference  to  the  forgiveness  of  sins,  but  that  it 
was  a  superfluous  act  of  righteousness  done  by 
Jesus  as  an  example  to  others. 


136  What  Jesus  Taught 

Matthew's  account  of  the  temptation  is  much 
fuller  than  Mark's  and  in  it  we  find  the  first  reh- 
gious  teaching  ascribed  to  Jesus  in  this  Gospel  (4:  i- 
10).  In  the  first  temptation  he  quotes  Deut.  8:3 
as  an  argument  that  it  is  not  essential  that  one  have 
bread  to  eat.  Other  things  may  do  as  well  if  God 
chooses  to  substitute  them,  as  he  did  in  providing 
the  manna  for  the  Israelites  (4:4).  This  is  Jesus' 
famiKar  doctrine  of  submission  to  and  trust  in  the 
Father.  Bread  is  not  essential.  Man's  attitude 
should  not  be  one  of  demand  for  anything,  but  of 
acquiescence  in  what  the  Father  provides. 

In  the  second  temptation  Jesus  quotes  Deut. 
6:16  against  the  suggestion  that  he  leap  down  from 
the  Temple.  With  Deut.  6:16  cf.  Exod.  17:2,  7, 
which  explains  what  was  there  meant  by  "tempt- 
ing" Jehovah,  viz.,  trying  his  patience,  exasperating 
him  by  complaint.  As  used  here  the  term  ' '  tempt ' ' 
would  seem  to  mean  experiment  with,  subject  to 
an  unnecessary  test.  This  Jesus  is  resolved  to 
avoid. 

In  the  third  temptation  Jesus  quotes  Deut. 
6:13,  inserting  the  word  "only"  and  making  the 
point  of  the  passage  to  be  that  ancient  Scripture 
commanded  worship  to  be  limited  to  Jehovah  alone. 

The  religious  teaching  with  which  Jesus  began 
his  ministry  according  to  both  Mark  and  Matthew 
was  the  call  to  repentance  in  view  of  the  near 
approach  of  the  Kingdom  (cf.  Mark  1:14).     His 


About  Religion  137 

teaching  in  general  on  his  tours  about  Galilee  had 
to  do  with  the  Kingdom  (4 :  23).  In  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount  (chaps.  5-7)  we  have  the  longest  and 
fullest  religious  discourse  ascribed  to  Jesus  in  any 
of  the  Synoptic  Gospels.  Our  previous  study  of 
what  Jesus  taught  about  civihzation  helps  us  to 
understand  it.  It  begins  with  a  series  of  congratu- 
lations to  those  classes  of  people  who  are  to  become 
members  of  the  Kingdom.  These  are  the  humble, 
the  troubled,  the  self-effacing,  the  spiritually  dis- 
satisfied, the  lenient,  the  clean-minded,  the  mediat- 
ing, and  those  who  endure  misunderstanding  and 
intolerant  treatment  because  of  their  adherence  to 
Jesus  (5:3-12).  They  cannot  help  being  conspic- 
uous, and  are  to  make  sure  that  their  influence  is 
wholesome  (5:13-16).  Jesus  denies  that  he  is  an 
iconoclast  as  respects  the  Jewish  law.  He  fully 
believes  in  its  perpetual  validity  and  his  followers 
will  be  rated  according  to  the  respect  they  show  for 
it.  They  must  be  even  more  punctilious  than  the 
Scribes  and  Pharisees  if  they  are  to  enter  the  King- 
dom (5:17-20).  To  illustrate  this  principle  he 
applies  it  to  several  concrete  examples,  viz.,  murder, 
adultery,  perjury,  revenge,  nationahsm,  in  each  case 
extending  the  Mosaic  statute.  Thus  he  condemns 
not  only  murder,  but  anger  and  contemptuous 
and  insulting  epithets  which  lead  to  murder.  So 
important  is  it  to  prevent  the  growth  of  ill-feeling 
that  one  must  even  break  off  from  a  reHgious  cere- 


138  What  Jesus  Taught 

mony  to  set  one 's  self  right  with  a  man  whose  feel- 
ings one  has  offended.  Every  effort  is  to  be  made 
to  speed  up  the  rebuilding  of  friendly  relations  (5 : 
21-26).  Notice  what  stress  Jesus  lays  on  the 
faculty  of  getting  along  with  people.  As  to  adul- 
tery, again  Jesus  condemns  not  only  the  act  itself, 
but  the  cherishing  of  lustful  thoughts  that  lead  to 
the  act  (cf.  also  15:11,  18-20;  Mark  7:20-23). 
Whatever  induces  these  is  to  be  avoided,  even  at 
severe  sacrifice.  It  is  not  impossible  that  Jesus 
here  intends  to  recommend  submission  to  castra- 
tion from  ascetic  motives.  Compare  on  this  point 
Matt.  19: 11-12.  Divorce  is  not  permissible  except 
upon  the  ground  of  the  wife's  unchastity,  and  to 
marry  a  woman  who  has  been  divorced  is  sinful. 
Compare  also  Matt.  19:9,  where  the  addition  is 
made  that  remarriage  is  forbidden  to  the  husband 
who  has  divorced  his  wife  unless  he  divorced  her 
upon  the  ground  of  unchastity.  Note  that  in  the 
earlier  Gospel  Mark  (10:11)  no  exception  is  made, 
and  remarriage  after  divorce  is  forbidden  to  both 
the  divorced  parties.  Luke  16:18  gives  Jesus* 
statement  in  the  same  form  as  Mark.  It  is  thought 
the  words  "except  for  fornication"  are  an  insertion 
made  by  Matthew  and  that  the  severer  statements 
of  Mark  and  Luke  correctly  represent  Jesus '  view. 
Note  that  in  any  case  here  as  in  the  other  instances 
Jesus '  teaching  is  an  advance  upon  the  Mosaic  re- 
quirements.   Deuteronomy  24 : 1-4  had  permitted 


About  Religion  139 

the  husband  to  divorce  his  wife  in  case  she  proved 
unsatisfactory,  and  also  permitted  her  to  marry  a 
second  time,  only  forbidding  her  to  go  back  to  her 
first  husband  in  case  her  second  husband  should  die 
or  divorce  her.  Jesus  holds  that  the  remarriage  of  a 
divorced  woman  is  illegitimate.  Elsewhere  (p.  131) 
we  have  noted  what  argument  Jesus  offered  in 
support  of  his  conviction  of  the  indissolubility  of 
marriage.  In  respect  to  perjury  Jesus  points  out 
that  it  is  futile  to  use  oaths  because  the  things  sworn 
by  are  outside  of  the  control  of  the  man  using  the 
oath.  Heaven,  earth,  Jersualem,  even  the  color  of 
a  single  hair  of  his  own  head,  He  outside  the  sphere 
of  his  control.  Men  should  therefore  abstain  from 
oaths  altogether,  simple  "yes"  and  "no"  being 
strong  enough  (5:33-37).  It  is  to  be  noted  that 
the  reference  is  not  to  cursing  or  profane  language, 
but  to  the  use  of  some  phrase  supposed  to  guarantee 
the  truth  of  what  one  says,  like  our  "so  help  me, 
God."  Once  more  Jesus  extends  the  Mosaic  Law, 
and  instead  of  saymg  that  men  must  not  fail  to  tell 
the  truth  when  they  have  sworn  to  do  so,  rules  that 
men  must  tell  the  truth  all  the  time.  Compare 
also  Jas.  5:12.  As  to  the  Mosaic  law  limiting 
retahation  to  an  equivalent  of  that  which  one  had 
suffered,  Jesus  would  ehminate  retahation  alto- 
gether, and  have  men  return  only  good  to  those 
who  have  injured  them,  and  yield  without  resist- 
ance to  those  who  choose  to  impose  upon  them 


I40  What  Jesus  Taught 

(S  •  33~42-  See  fuller  note  on  p.  io8).  In  regard  to 
racial  distinctions  Jesus  taught  that  his  followers' 
good  will  was  not  to  be  limited  to  their  fellow- Jews, 
but  to  extend  to  foreigners  and  anti-Semites.  In 
the  breadth  of  their  good  will  they  were  to  be  like 
the  heavenly  Father  who  paid  no  attention  to 
nationality  in  his  bestowing  of  sunlight  and  rain. 
To  Hmit  their  friendliness  to  those  of  their  own 
circle  would  be  to  adopt  a  standard  no  higher  than 
that  of  tax-collectors  and  foreigners,  who  were  com- 
monly most  despised  (5:43-48).  Thus  by  all  these 
illustrations  Jesus  supports  his  assertion  that  his 
teaching  does  not  lower  but  raises  the  standards  of 
the  earlier  rehgious  teaching  revered  by  the  Jews. 
He  insists  upon  an  extension,  not  an  abrogation,  of 
Mosaic  moraUty.  It  may  help  us  to  fix  this  in 
mind  by  reflecting  that  the  sign  of  the  cross  is  the 
plus  sign,  too. 

Turning  now  to  another  topic,  he  shows  what 
must  be  the  controlling  motive  for  his  followers  as 
they  express  their  religion  by  the  ordinary  methods 
of  charity,  prayer,  and  fasting.  All  these  are  to 
be  performed  not  with  ostentatious  publicity  to 
impress  other  men  and  win  their  applause,  but 
secretly  and  to  gain  the  inner  sense  of  God's 
approval  (6:1-16).  The  same  consideration  will 
apply  to  their  acquirement  of  property. 

The  Kingdom  and  their  place  in  the  Kingdom  is 
to  become  Hfe's  controlling  motive.     The  acquisi- 


About  Religion  141 

tion  of  property  and  the  anxiety  for  the  future  that 
prompts  it  are  both  to  be  avoided.  Since  God  pro- 
vides for  the  needs  of  birds  and  wild  flowers,  he  may 
safely  be  trusted  to  provide  for  the  needs  of  those 
who  occupy  themselves  wholly  with  the  promotion 
of  the  Kingdom  (6:19-34).  The  rest  of  the  ser- 
mon (7:1-27)  is  given  to  a  number  of  apparently 
unrelated  topics  ending  with  a  final  appeal  to  his 
hearers  to  accept  his  teaching  and  build  their  con- 
duct for  the  future  upon  it  in  order  that  when  the 
catastrophes  that  form  a  part  of  the  messianic 
program  come,  they  may  survive.  Of  these  unre- 
lated topics  there  are  seven:  (i)  God's  judgment 
will  be  based  upon  men 's  judgment  of  each  other. 
It  is  the  part  of  wisdom  then  to  study  one's  own 
faults  rather  than  those  of  others  (7 : 1-5) .  (2)  The 
Kingdom-people  are  not  to  waste  their  teaching 
upon  the  unsusceptible  (7:6).  (3)  Men  grant  the 
requests  of  their  fellows;  it  is  the  more  certain  that 
God  will  answer  prayer  (7:7-11).  (4)  The  rule  of 
one's  treatment  of  others  is  to  be  the  thought  of 
how  one  would  one's  self  Kke  to  be  treated  in  the 
circumstances  (7:12).  (5)  Admission  to  the  King- 
dom involves  difficulty  and  limitation,  and  few  will 
succeed  in  entering  it  (7 :  13-14)-  (6)  His  followers 
are  to  be  on  their  guard  against  impostors.  At  the 
messianic  judgment  Jesus  will  himself  expose  them 
and  pronounce  their  doom  (7:15-23).  (7)  Those 
who  give  heed  to  Jesus'  teachings  and  act  upon 


142  What  Jesus  Taught 

them  will  survive  the  calamities  of  this  coming 
judgment,  those  who  do  not  will  be  destroyed  (7: 
24-27). 

In  Matt.  9:12  as  elsewhere  in  the  gospels  (e.g., 
Matt.  II :  19;  Luke  15:2)  Jesus  is  criticized  for  his 
association  with  disreputable  classes.  But  in  Mat- 
thew (9:13)  he  adds  to  his  defense  a  quotation  of 
Hos.  6 : 6,  one  of  the  high  peaks  of  Hebrew  religion 
as  represented  by  the  Prophets.  The  same  passage 
is  assigned  to  him  in  another  connection  in  Matt. 
12:7.  Such  a  verse  would  be  well  in  keeping  with 
Jesus'  disregard  for  the  formaUties  of  religion  and 
his  insistence  upon  its  realities.  Jesus  feels  that  the 
people  generally  are  ready  to  accept  the  Kingdom 
message,  but  that  there  are  few  to  proclaim  it,  and 
urges  the  disciples  to  pray  God  to  increase  their 
number  (9:37,  38).  The  whole  of  the  tenth  chap- 
ter of  Matthew  is  devoted  to  the  instructions  given 
the  Twelve  before  they  are  sent  out  upon  a  mission 
tour.  They  were  to  avoid  all  except  Jews.  They 
were  to  announce  that  the  Kingdom  was  near  and 
perform  miracles.  They  were  to  depend  on  the 
populace  for  food.  Should  they  be  turned  away 
from  any  home  or  village  a  curse  would  fall  upon 
that  place  at  the  messianic  judgment.  They  could 
expect  arrest  and  scourging,  and  trial  before  impor- 
tant rulers,  but  were  to  make  no  preparation  before- 
hand for  defense.  Their  teaching  would  provoke 
murder.     They  would  be  detested  and  persecuted. 


About  Religion  143 

Before  they  had  completed  the  round  of  the  Jewish 
cities,  the  messianic  judgment  would  have  come. 
They  could  expect  to  be  treated  as  Jesus  himself 
had  been  treated,  but  were  not  to  fear  even  death. 
God  would  take  note  of  their  sufferings  and  at  the 
messianic  judgment  Jesus  would  pubhcly  acknowl- 
edge them  as  his  followers,  while  those  who  had 
refused  allegiance  to  him,  he  would  disown.  So 
far  from  being  a  peace-bringer  he  declares  himself  a 
social  firebrand  and  demands  from  his  followers 
devotion  to  the  bitter  death.  The  slightest  kind- 
nesses shown  them  by  others  will  be  fitly  rewarded 
(10:1-42). 

In  answer  to  a  charge  that  his  disciples  broke 
the  Sabbath,  Jesus  argues  that  whatever  is  helpful 
to  men  is  legitimate  on  that  day  (12:1-14).  Iri 
criticism  of  the  people  of  his  time  he  uses  as  an 
illustration  the  case  of  a  demon  which  has  been 
exorcised,  but  which  returns  to  its  victim  bringing 
seven  worse  demons  with  it  so  that  the  man  is  worse 
off  than  before,  the  point  being  that  a  future  worse 
than  the  present  was  ahead  of  his  listeners  (12:43- 
45).  Incidentally,  however,  this  passage  gives  an 
example  of  Jesus'  ideas  in  regard  to  demoniacal 
possession  as  represented  in  the  gospels.  Other  of 
Jesus '  religious  teachings  are  the  foredoom  of  insti- 
tutions not  founded  by  God  (15:13;  cf.  also  Acts 
5:34-35,  38,  39);  the  power  of  faith  to  produce 
changes  in  nature  (17 :  20) ;  importance  of  avoiding 


144  What  Jesus  Taught 

any  injury  to  his  followers, who  have  angels  to  repre- 
sent their  case  before  God  and  whom  God  cares  for 
as  a  shepherd  cares  for  his  sheep  (18:5-14).  He 
outlines  a  plan  for  the  settlement  of  personal  diffi- 
culties among  his  followers  (18:15-18).  The  con- 
certed prayer  of  two  of  his  disciples  is  certain  to  be 
answered  (18:19).  God's  forgiveness  of  men  is 
contingent  upon  their  forgiveness  of  others  (18: 
21-35).  Ill  the  Kingdom  there  is  to  be  a  complete 
reversal  of  ordinary  standards  (20:1-16).  While 
in  gentile  society  honor  is  paid  those  who  have 
power  to  dominate  others,  among  the  disciples 
honor  is  to  be  won  by  service  (20:25-27).  Jesus 
holds  that  the  sanctity  of  the  Temple  should  be 
preserved  (21:12-13).  He  thinks  of  the  life  after 
death  as  a  condition  where  marriage  will  no  longer 
obtain  (22:23-30).  He  uses  Exod.  3:6  as  a  proof 
of  the  continuance  of  Hfe  after  death  (22:31-33). 
In  reply  to  a  question  put  by  a  Pharisee,  Jesus  sums 
up  the  whole  of  Jewish  religious  teaching  in  love  to 
God  and  one's  neighbor  (22:34-40). 

Almost  the  whole  of  chapter  23  is  devoted  to  a 
denunciation  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees,  the 
main  charges  against  them  being  their  failure  to  do 
themselves  that  which  they  required  others  to  do, 
their  ostentation  and  vanity  (vss.  1-12),  their 
hostihty  to  the  Kingdom- teaching  (vs.  13),  their 
mistaken  zeal  in  proselyting  (vs.  15),  their  hair- 
spHtting  distinctions  (vss.  16-22),  their  neglect  of 


About  Religion  145 

great  matters  in  their  insistence  upon  small  ones 
(vss.  23-24),  their  hypocrisy  (vss.  27-28),  their 
resistance  to  the  religious  leaders  God  had  sent 
(vss.  29-36). 

The  twenty-fourth  chapter  is  similar  to  Mark, 
chapter  13,  and  Luke,  chapter  24,  and  describes 
the  catastrophes  that  will  precede  the  coming  of 
the  Son  of  Man.  These  will  be  the  destruction  of 
the  Temple,  a  general  reign  of  terror  marked  by 
wars,  famines,  earthquakes,  the  rise  of  false  leaders, 
hatred,  betrayal,  delusion,  and  apostasy.  Before 
the  end  comes  the  gospel  of  the  Kingdom  is  to  be 
preached  to  all  nations.  Then  there  will  be  por- 
tents in  the  sky,  and  the  Son  of  Man  will  appear  in 
the  clouds  with  his  angels,  who  will  assemble  the 
Kingdom-people  from  all  parts  of  the  earth.  All 
this  is  to  take  place  during  his  own  generation. 
His  coming  as  Son  of  Man  will  be  sudden  and  unex- 
pected and  will  bring  terrible  destruction  to  the 
unfaithful. 

Further  illustrating  the  suddenness  and  irre- 
vocability of  his  coming,  and  as  a  warning  against 
neglect  of  the  intervening  time  of  opportunity, 
Jesus  tells  the  parables  of  the  Ten  Virgins  and  the 
one-talent  man.  A  vivid  picture  of  the  messianic 
judgment  follows  (25:31-46)  where  it  appears  that 
the  basal  consideration  is  to  be  the  treatment 
which  has  been  given  to  the  Jews.  In  the  scene  in 
Gethsemane  we  see  Jesus  living  the  doctrine  he 


146  What  Jesus  Taught 

frequently  taught,  that  of  submission  to  God 's  will 
(26:36-46),  and  in  his  arrest  and  later  in  the  trial 
we  see  his  own  example  of  non-resistance  (26:47- 
52).  He  accepts  the  whole  experience  as  preor- 
dained and  described  in  Scripture.  He  does  not 
need  Peter's  defense,  but  were  it  not  God's  will  for 
him  to  be  thus  humiliated  he  could  call  to  his  assist- 
ance not  merely  twelve  men,  but  more  than  twelve 
legions  (some  72,000)  angels.  The  last  word 
Matthew  ascribes  to  Jesus  before  his  death  is  the 
pathetic  and  despairing  cry,  "My  God,  my  God, 
why  hast  thou  forsaken  me?"  (27:46.)  After 
the  resurrection  he  meets  the  disciples  at  a  moun- 
tain in  Galilee  and  gives  them  the  "  Great  Commis- 
sion," directing  them  to  continue  to  preach  the 
Kingdom  message  until  the  end  of  the  age  (28: 
16-20). 

Recapitulation. — Undertaking  now  to  sum  up 
Matthew's  presentation  of  Jesus'  teaching  about 
religion,  we  find  Jesus  represented  as  familiar  with 
the  Book  of  Deuteronomy,  and  quoting  it  in  crucial 
moments;  as  preaching  repentance  and  the  near 
approach  of  the  Kingdom;  as  depicting  the  char- 
acter of  the  Kingdom-people;  as  asserting  his 
regard  for  the  Mosaic  Law  and  extending  its  obliga- 
tions to  the  realm  of  thought  and  intention;  as 
emphasizing  rightness  in  human  relationships,  even 
to  the  interruption  of  religious  ceremonies,  and 
making  this  rightness  the  basis  of  forgiveness  with 


About  Religion  147 

God;  as  urging  a  good  will  that  ignores  racial 
distinctions;  as  decrying  ostentation  in  religious 
habits;  as  making  life's  central  passion  devotion  to 
the  Kingdom  with  consequent  freedom  from  anxi- 
ety as  to  other  matters;  as  expressing  faith  in 
prayer  based  upon  the  fatherly  character  of  God; 
as  cautioning  his  followers  against  misspending 
energy  upon  the  unteachable;  as  making  the  treat- 
ment one  would  desire  from  others  the  guide  to 
one's  treatment  of  others;  as  making  rehgion  a 
thing  of  the  spirit,  not  of  ceremony;  as  limiting  his 
own  and  his  disciples'  ministry  to  the  Jewish 
people ;  as  warning  his  disciples  of  the  persecutions 
they  will  suffer;  as  forecasting  national  calamities 
for  his  nation;  as  believing  in  the  certain  failure  of 
institutions  which  are  not  of  divine  origin;  as  mak- 
ing service  the  path  to  leadership ;  as  affirming  that 
the  Temple  was  to  be  kept  sacred  to  rehgious  uses; 
as  beheving  in  hfe  after  death  and  to  some  extent 
describing  its  conditions ;  as  summing  up  the  whole 
of  Jewish  ethical  and  rehgious  teaching  in  the 
formula  of  love  for  God  and  neighbor;  as  excoriat- 
ing the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  for  their  ostentation 
and  wrong-headedness ;  as  predicting  in  vivid 
apocalyptic  phrases  the  catastrophes  which  would 
be  the  precursors  of  his  return  as  the  Son  of  Man, 
and  the  messianic  judgment  that  would  follow  it; 
as  warning  against  misuse  of  the  intervening 
period  and  unpreparedness  at  his  return;  as  accept- 


148  What  Jesus  Taught 

ing  the  incidents  of  his  arrest  and  death  as  preor- 
dained and  submissively  to  be  undergone. 

THE   TEACHING   IN   LUKE 

Summary  of  Luke's  report. — ^Luke  preserves  an 
account  of  one  of  Jesus'  boyhood  experiences,  and 
the  first  words  he  ascribes  to  him  are  those  of  his 
reply  to  his  mother's  questioning:  "How  is  it  that 
ye  sought  me?  Knew  ye  not  that  I  must  be  in 
my  Father's  house?"  (2:41-51.)  This  has  been 
taken  to  indicate  that  Jesus  had  not  only  an 
extraordinary  precocity  in  religious  matters,  but  an 
unusual  sense  of  relatedness  to  God,  and  it  would 
appear  that  the  story  is  told  with  the  intention  of 
producing  this  effect.  For  a  parallel  to  Jesus' 
talking  with  the  doctors  of  the  law  compare 
Josephus'  Autobiography,  where  he  tells  how  he 
himself  when  at  the  age  of  about  fourteen  years 
used  to  be  consulted  by  the  high  priests  and  leading 
citizens  who  would  come  frequently  to  him  in  a 
body  to  get  his  opinion  on  knotty  questions  of 
Jewish  law. 

In  Luke's  narrative  of  the  temptation  (4:1-12) 
the  order  of  the  temptations  is  bread,  kingdoms, 
Temple,  while  in  Matthew  it  is  bread,  Temple, 
kingdoms.  The  same  passages  of  Scripture  are 
quoted  as  in  Matthew,  already  discussed.  Luke 
has  a  fuller  account  of  Jesus '  preaching  at  Nazareth 
(4:16-30)  than  those  given  in  Mark  6:1-6  and 


About  Religion  149 

Matt.  13:54-58,  and  while  in  Mark  and  Matthew 
the  villagers  are  angered  at  the  unusual  gifts  shown 
by  a  fellow-villager  whose  humble  origin  was  well 
known,  in  Luke  their  anger  arises  from  his  pro- 
gentile  attitude.  In  regard  to  the  Sabbath,  Jesus 
afiirms  by  both  act  and  teaching  that  acts  of  human 
kindness  are  legitimate  upon  that  day  (6:1-11). 
Luke 's  Sermon  on  the  Plain  (6 :  20-49)  gives  part  of 
the  material  Matthew  preserves  in  the  Sermon  on 
the  Mount,  with  some  differences.  Thus  where 
Matthew  says,  "Blessed  are  the  poor  in  spirit," 
Luke  says,  "Blessed  are  the  poor."  The  thirty- 
eighth  verse  is  an  addition,  but  on  the  whole  the 
sermon  in  Luke  is  much  shorter  than  in  Matthew. 
Parts  of  the  sermon  are  scattered  through  the 
eleventh,  twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  sixteenth  chap- 
ters of  Luke.  The  Lord's  Prayer,  e.g.,  occurs  in  a 
different  setting  (11:1-4)  than  in  Matt.  6:9-13. 
Luke  has  some  sayings  of  Jesus  which  neither  Mark 
nor  Matthew  presents,  e.g.,  the  fine  sentiment  in 
11:41  which  recalls  the  "Vision  of  Sir  Launfal" 
and  the  words  "the  gift  without  the  giver  is  bare." 
Luke  alone  tells  the  story  of  the  Good  Samaritan 
(10:25-37).  The  whole  parable  of  the  Foolish 
Rich  Man  (12:13-21)  is  also  peculiar  to  Luke. 
Notice  how  much  of  Jesus'  teaching  about  money 
appears  in  Luke 's  Gospel,  so  much  that  it  has  been 
sometimes  thought  to  show  the  influence  of  the 
Ebionites,  an  early  Christian  sect  whose  teachings 


150  What  Jesus  Taught 

glorified  poverty.  It  might  seem  more  probable 
that  they  drew  upon  Luke  to  support  their  views 
than  that  their  emphasis  influenced  the  Gospel, 
were  it  not  known  that  the  only  gospel  they 
accepted  was  that  of  Matthew.  A  number  of 
scholars  have  written  upon  this  topic,  reaching 
varying  conclusions.  Some  member  of  the  dis- 
cussion group  should  make  a  careful  collection  and 
interpretation  of  the  passages  in  Luke  relating  to 
wealth  and  poverty  and  report  his  findings  to  the 
group,  or  undertake  this  later  as  a  piece  of  inde- 
pendent study.  We  should  spare  no  pains  to  find 
out  as  exactly  as  we  can  what  Jesus  taught.  Luke 
gives  in  13 :  i-io  examples  of  Jesus'  teaching  which 
no  other  evangelist  records,  though  these  are  per- 
haps political  rather  than  religious  in  their  intent. 
Jesus  expects  a  general  calamity  to  befall  Israel  as 
a  result  of  its  failure  to  repent  (13:1-5),  illustrat- 
ing further  by  the  parable  of  the  barren  fig  tree 
(13 : 6-9) .  We  cannot  be  sure  whether  the  impend- 
ing national  calamity  is  thought  of  as  a  destruction 
of  the  nation  by  the  Romans  brought  on  by  the 
Jewish  revolutionary  spirit  (zealotism),  or  whether 
it  is  regarded  as  to  be  sent  upon  his  hearers  by  God 
as  a  punishment  for  their  irreligion.  In  any  case, 
repentance  alone  will  prevent  the  disaster.  Jesus' 
free  attitude  toward  the  Sabbath  is  shown  in  the 
account  of  the  cure  of  a  demon-possessed  woman 
(13:10-17)  on  that  day,  and  the  argument  Jesus 


About  Religion  151 

adduces.  Another  incident  with  the  same  motive 
follows  (14: 1-6).  Jesus  satirizes  the  vanity  of  his 
fellow-guests  at  a  feast  and  advises  humility  (14: 
7-1 1 ;  cf.  Prov.  25:7).  Those  who  give  banquets 
should  invite  the  poor  who  can  make  no  return, 
such  an  act  being  rewarded  in  the  future  life  (14: 
12-14).  The  fifteenth  chapter  of  Luke  contains 
some  of  Jesus'  best-known  religious  teaching  and 
hardly  any  of  it  appears  in  the  other  gospels,  though 
the  same  criticism  which  calls  it  out  appears  else- 
where and  is  more  briefly  answered  by  Jesus  (Mark 
2:16-17;  Matt.  9:11-12;  Luke  5:30-32).  The 
parables  of  the  Lost  Sheep,  the  Lost  Coin,  and  the 
Prodigal  Son  are  all  aimed  at  the  Pharisees  and 
Scribes,  and  intended  as  a  rebuke  of  their  religious 
exclusiveness,  Jesus'  contention  being  that  God 
cared  more  about  the  people  they  held  in  contempt 
than  he  cared  about  them.  It  is  said  they  had  a 
saying,  "There  is  joy  before  God  when  those  who 
provoke  him  perish  from  the  world."  Jesus '  asser- 
tion is,  "There  is  joy  before  God  when  those  who 
provoke  him  repent."  One  represents  the  hard, 
proud,  narrow  legalistic  attitude  of  a  self-congrat- 
ulating religionist,  the  other  the  exasperation 
aroused  by  it  in  one  who  really  understood  and 
cared  for  men.  Some  questions  may  help  make  us 
clear  on  Jesus '  teaching  here.  Does  he  mean  that 
God  is  better  pleased  with  one  thief  who  becomes  an 
honest  man  than  with  ninety-nine  honest  men  who 


152  What  Jesus  Taught 

have  never  been  thieves?  Is  this  putting  a  pre- 
mium on  honesty  or  on  thievery?  Does  Jesus 
speak  ironically  when  he  mentions  "men  who  need 
no  repentance  "  ?  Or  is  the  point  made  in  all  these 
three  parables  the  strong  language  of  hyperbole  ? 
Does  the  elder  brother  represent  the  Scribes  and 
Pharisees  ?  Is  the  emphasis  and  meaning  generally 
put  upon  the  parable  of  the  Prodigal  Son  a  whole- 
some one  ?  Is  the  work  of  religion  on  the  whole  to 
recall  prodigal  sons  or  to  keep  them  from  becoming 
prodigal  sons  ?  What  is  the  object  of  religious 
work? 

In  the  parable  of  the  Unjust  Steward  (16:1-13) 
Luke  gives  a  teaching  none  of  the  other  gospels 
records.  The  point  seems  to  be  the  same  as  that 
made  in  12:33,  and  14:13-14,  viz.,  use  or  dispose 
of  wealth  in  such  a  way  as  to  win  advantage  for 
yourself  in  the  next  Ufe.  In  the  parable  of  the 
Rich  Man  and  Lazarus  (16: 19-31)  we  have  a  phase 
of  Jesus '  teaching  that  only  Luke  mentions.  The 
twenty-fifth  chapter  of  Matthew  describes  the 
doom  of  the  rejected  at  the  messianic  judgment, 
but  this  passage  in  Luke  attributes  to  Jesus  a  view 
as  to  the  conditions  of  the  after-life  under  ordinary 
circumstances.  Note,  too,  that  it  reflects  the 
hostility  to  wealth  and  glorification  of  poverty  that 
is  so  marked  a  characteristic  of  this  Gospel.  The 
disciples  are  to  think  of  their  service  only  as  a 
doing  of  duty  (17 : 7-10).  Luke 's  Gospel  emphasizes 


About  Religion  153 

Jesus'  sympathetic  feeling  for  non- Jewish  peoples. 
It  is  this  which  causes  his  rejection  at  Nazareth 
(4:16-30).  The  hero  of  the  famous  parable  in 
10:30-36  was  a  Samaritan,  while  the  two  Jews  in 
the  story  play  a  dishonorable  part.  He  rebukes 
James  and  John  when  they  meditate  the  destruc- 
tion of  a  Samaritan  village  (9: 51-55).  Luke  omits 
Jesus'  directions  to  the  disciples  to  avoid  entering 
any  gentile  or  Samaritan  village  and  his  limitation 
of  his  own  ministry  to  the  Jews  (cf.  Matt.  15:24), 
as  well  as  the  story  of  the  Greek  woman  to  whom 
Jesus  speaks  of  the  Gentiles  as  "dogs "  (Mark  7:27; 
Matt.  15:26).  So  also  in  the  account  of  the  ten 
lepers  (17 :  11-19)  the  one  whom  Jesus  approves  is  a 
Samaritan. 

Jesus  foresees  a  period  of  terror  and  calamity 
before  his  return  as  the  Son  of  Man  (17:22-37). 
He  urges  persistency  in  prayer  (18:1-8).  He 
regards  humihty  as  necessary  to  the  offering  of 
acceptable  prayer  (18:9-14).  He  declares  salva- 
tion has  come  to  a  man  who  has  begun  to  right  his 
social  relationships  (19:1-10).  The  time  preced- 
ing his  return  as  Son  of  Man  is  a  period  of 
opportunity,  which  may  or  may  not  be  utilized 
(19:11-27).  In  the  conversation  on  the  road  to 
Emmaus  after  the  resurrection  Jesus  argues  that 
his  sufferings  were  predicted  in  the  earUer  Jewish 
literature  (24:13-27).  The  same  idea  recurs  later 
with  the  addition  of  an  instruction  to  undertake 


154  What  Jesus  Taught 

a  world-wide  evangelistic  effort  beginning  at  Jeru- 
salem (24:47). 

Recapitulation. — Summarizing  briefly  Luke's 
record  of  what  Jesus  taught  about  religion  we  may- 
say  this  Gospel  contains  much  we  have  noted 
already  in  the  other  gospels,  though  he  has  consider- 
able new  material.  He  has  eighteen  parables  that 
the  other  gospels  do  not  mention.  These  largely 
emphasize  ideas  not  contained  in  Mark  and 
Matthew.  Jesus '  rehgious  precocity;  the  extent  of 
forgiveness  as  the  measure  of  love;  foreigners  the 
object  of  Jesus'  special  favor;  Jesus  the  recipient 
of  special  authority  and  knowledge  from  God ;  love 
for  one 's  neighbor  to  be  shown  by  helping  wherever 
there  is  need;  prayer  to  be  insistent;  the  folly  of 
hoarding,  and  the  use  of  money  in  such  a  way  as  to 
win  a  favorable  place  in  the  next  life;  the  deliberate 
counting  of  the  cost  of  discipleship ;  God's  dehght 
in  the  conversion  of  sinners  greater  than  his  pleasure 
in  the  "righteous";  the  depicting  of  the  conditions 
of  the  tortured  and  the  happy  in  the  next  life;  a 
disciple's  service  only  duty;  successful  prayer 
dependent  on  humility;  the  intervening  period 
before  Jesus'  return  one  of  opportunity  for  which 
the  disciples  will  be  held  accountable;  Jesus  after 
his  resurrection  reproving  the  disciples  for  failing  to 
interpret  correctly  the  Old  Testament  predictions; 
these  are  all  new  elements  which  only  Luke  pre- 
sents. 


About  Religion  155 

recapitulation  of  the  teaching  as  given 
by  mark,  matthew,  and  luke 

Bringing  together  now  our  findings  in  Mark, 
Mattiiew,  and  Luke  and  arranging  them  under 
topics  we  discover: 

1.  As  to  God:  Jesus  assumed  the  existence  of 
God  and  beheved  him  to  be  a  heavenly  Father,  who 
is  kindly,  provident,  aware  of  the  smallest  matters, 
impartial,  all-powerful,  interested  in  the  establish- 
ment of  the  Kingdom,  amenable  to  persuasion. 

2.  As  to  prayer  to  God:  Jesus  himself  prayed; 
he  taught  his  disciples  a  form  of  prayer;  he 
recommended  that  prayer  be  solitary;  he  be- 
lieved that  undoubting  confidence  guaranteed  the 
answer  of  prayer  even  to  the  extent  of  the  up- 
rooting of  trees  and  the  transfer  of  mountains;  he 
regarded  persistence  as  certain  to  make  prayer 
effectual. 

3.  As  to  a  future  life:  Jesus  taught  the  doctrine 
of  a  future  life,  basing  his  argument  for  it,  as  is  sup- 
posed, upon  a  verb  in  Exod.  3:6,  and  describing  it 
to  the  extent  of  denying  that  in  the  future  life  the 
relationship  of  marriage  is  to  continue.  No  indica- 
tion is  given  as  to  his  idea  of  the  manner  or  date  of 
the  resurrection  except  that  it  seems  to  precede  his 
return  as  Son  of  Man.  The  life  after  death  he 
thinks  of  as  continuous,  since  the  condition  of  those 
upon  whom  he  pronounces  judgment  is  that  of 
eternal  comfort  or  misery. 


156  What  Jesus  Taught 

4.  As  to  sin  and  its  forgiveness:  Jesus  regards 
himself  as  capable  of  forgiving  sins;  he  empowers 
his  disciples  to  do  the  same;  he  urges  his  hearers  to 
be  forgiving;  he  declares  God's  forgiveness  of  a 
man  to  be  dependent  upon  that  man's  forgiving 
those  who  had  injured  him;  to  attribute  the  power 
residing  in  him  to  diabolic  influence  seems  to  him  an 
unforgivable  offense. 

5.  As  to  salvation:  Jesus  uses  the  term  salva- 
tion only  once  in  the  Synoptic  Gospels  (Luke  19:9) 
and  designates  by  it  participation  in  the  Kingdom, 
the  right  to  such  participation  resting  in  Zacchaeus ' 
case  upon  the  two  facts  of  his  righting  of  his  social 
relationship  and  of  his  Jewish  nationality.  Com- 
pare for  the  same  nationalistic  emphasis  in  regard 
to  salvation  the  only  other  passage  in  which  the 
term  is  ascribed  to  Jesus  (John  4:22). 

6.  As  to  character:  Jesus  lauded  qualities  usu- 
ally disparaged,  such  as  voluntary  poverty,  sadness, 
lack  of  self-assertion,  unpopularity,  resignation  to 
one's  fate,  non-resistance.  Success  according  to 
Jesus'  ideal  did  not  consist  in  acquiring  wealth  or 
learning  or  control  over  men.  It  lay  in  confidence 
in  the  Father's  care,  patient  acceptance  of  his  will, 
selfless  service  of  others,  absorption  in  the  interests 
of  the  Kingdom. 

7.  As  to  social  relationships:  Jesus'  religion 
was  one  of  personal  relationships — of  men  to  God 
and  of  men  to  men.     His  whole  teaching  centers  in 


About  Religion  157 

the  concept  of  an  ideal  society,  the  Kingdom  of 
God.  Although  according  to  the  gospel  representa- 
tions he  expected  this  to  be  established  in  a  super- 
natural and  cataclysmic  way,  it  was  when  com- 
pleted to  be  an  earthly  community,  organized  on 
the  basis  of  the  Jewish  tribal  divisions  and  com- 
posed of  men  of  the  Kingdom  type.  Moreover,  in 
the  intervening  period  before  the  Kingdom's 
establishment  at  his  own  return  the  disciples  were 
to  carry  on  a  campaign  of  propaganda  and  win  men 
to  the  Kingdom  Hfe,  though,  in  so  doing,  some 
would,  like  himself,  suffer  persecution  and  death. 
Out  of  what  Jesus  taught  about  religion  have 
come  the  great  ideas  of  universal  friendliness 
between  men  and  universal  reverence  toward  God, 
that  are  expressed  in  the  phrases,  the  fatherhood  of 
God,  and  the  brotherhood  of  men.  Brotherhood 
is  now  taking  on  more  of  the  technical,  concrete 
meaning.  As  there  is  the  Brotherhood  of  Loco- 
motive Engineers,  there  will  some  day  be  a  Brother- 
hood of  Man — a  league  of  humanity  organized  for 
mutual  protection,  improvement,  and  self-help. 
This  will  be  the  next  step  toward  the  realization  of 
Jesus'  great  ideal. 


CHAPTER  IX 
WHAT  JESUS  TAUGHT  ABOUT  HIMSELF 

The  teaching  of  Jesus,  and  the  teaching  about 
Jesus. — The  literature  that  springs  up  about 
any  great  leader  consists  of  three  elements,  being 
the  record  or  discussion  of  his  acts,  his  ideas,  and 
the  views  held  about  him  by  others.  It  is  easy  to 
see  how  these  may  blend  into  each  other  so  that 
his  action  expresses  ideas,  and  the  views  of  parti- 
sans insensibly  color  the  record  of  his  own  teaching. 
Thus  it  is  often  pointed  out  that  in  the  gospels  we 
have  both  the  teaching  of  Jesus  and  the  teaching 
about  Jesus.  To  separate  them  is  a  subtle  task, 
and  one  in  which  the  personal  equation  is  likely  to 
determine  the  conclusion.  It  is  sometimes  said 
that  "Jesus  stands  head  and  shoulders  above  his 
reporters,"  and  that  we  are  to  attribute  to  Jesus 
such  teachings  as  could  not  have  come  from  any 
lesser  person,  and  relieve  him  of  any  which  fall 
below  our  feeling  of  what  is  appropriate  to  his  char- 
acter. This,  it  is  obvious,  makes  our  view  of  what 
Jesus  taught  on  any  point  to  be  governed  not  by  all 
the  evidence  available,  but  by  what  is  in  keeping 
with  our  ideal.  For  a  study  such  as  ours,  as  we 
agreed  in  the  beginning,  it  is  better  to  take  all  the 
evidence  the  Synoptic  Gospels  give  on  every  point 

is8 


About  Himself  159 

and  build  it  into  a  compact  statement,  and,  as 
inferences  are  likely  to  vary,  leave  each  member  of 
the  discussion  group  to  draw  his  own.  More 
important  than  immediate  conclusions  and  formu- 
lated opinions  is  the  impartial  consideration  of  evi- 
dence. We  shall  therefore  examine  the  gospels  to 
see  what  they  record  as  Jesus '  teaching  about  him- 
self. 

Our  method. — For  brevity's  sake  we  must  use 
such  phrases  as  Jesus  teaches,  Jesus  thinks,  Jesus 
believes,  etc.,  meaning,  as  throughout  all  our  dis- 
cussions, that  as  we  understand  the  gospel  passages 
they  represent  Jesus  as  so  teaching,  thinking, 
believing,  etc. 

THE  TEACHING  IN  MARK 

Summary  of  Mark's  report.^Mark  tells  of 
Jesus'  baptism,  temptation,  and  early  Kingdom 
preaching  in  Galilee  without  mention  of  any  teach- 
ing of  Jesus  about  himself.  The  first  instance  of 
this  comes  in  Jesus'  choice  of  Simon  and  Andrew 
to  be  his  disciples  or  students  (1:17).  Compare 
the  familiar  story  of  how  Socrates  called  Xenophon 
by  barring  the  young  man's  way  in  a  narrow  pas- 
sage with  his  staff  and  asking  where  this  and  that 
could  be  bought,  ending  with,  "Where  can  Wisdom 
be  bought?"  Upon  Xenophon  saying  he  did  not 
know,  Socrates  said,  "Come  with  me  and  I  will 
teach  you."     Thus  in  this  first  statement,  "Come 


i6o  What  Jesus  Taught 

you  after  me,  and  I  will  make  you  to  become  fishers 
of  men,"  Jesus  shows  a  belief  in  his  power  to  lead 
men  and  gives  evidence  of  having  a  thought-out 
plan  of  action.  This  self-confidence  is  also  shown 
in  his  teaching  (1:22).  He  feels  the  pressure  of  his 
duty  to  present  the  Kingdom  message  from  village 
to  village  (1:38).  He  tries  in  vain  to  avoid  pub- 
licity (i :  43-45).  He  calls  himself  the  Son  of  Man 
and  claims  to  have  the  power  of  forgiving  sins, 
using  a  healing  to  substantiate  his  claim  (2 :  lo-ii). 
As  to  the  meaning  of  the  term  Son  of  Man,  opinions 
differ.  Some  scholars  regard  it  as  a  name  for  the 
expected  Messiah  which  was  in  popular  use  at  the 
time,  and  which  Jesus  adopted  and  applied  to  him- 
self. Others  question  whether  there  is  sufficient 
evidence  to  show  that  it  was  thus  used  before  Jesus' 
time  and  incline  to  the  view  that  Jesus  employed 
the  term  in  a  sense  based  on  its  Old  Testament  use, 
meaning  by  it  to  say,  "I  am  a  Man,"  that  is,  that 
he  thought  of  himself  as  representative  of  all  the 
qualities  and  subject  to  all  the  obligations  that 
obtain,  not  merely  in  the  case  of  an  individual  man, 
but  of  all  humanity.  The  difficulty  lies  in  the  lack 
of  evidence  as  to  contemporary  usage.  The  Old 
Testament  furnishes  no  example  of  the  term  the 
"Son  of  Man"  as  a  title  for  the  Messiah  or  any 
other  person.  Ezekiel  is  called  Son  of  Man  (33 :  i, 
7,  10,  and  elsewhere),  and  the  term  is  sometimes 
used  in  a  poetic  way,  meaning  humanity,  mankind 


About  Himself  i6i 

(Ps.  8:4;  Dan.  7:13).  In  the  gospels  it  is  used 
only  by  Jesus  and  in  reference  to  himself.  Aside 
from  the  Old  and  New  Testaments  we  must 
depend  largely  upon  the  evidence  of  the  Book  of 
Enoch.  In  it  the  phrase  Son  of  Man  occurs  fre- 
quently as  a  name  for  the  Messiah.  Professor 
R.  H.  Charles,  who  has  edited  this  book  and  is 
a  foremost  scholar  in  the  field  of  apocalyptic  litera- 
ture, dates  those  portions  of  the  book  which  con- 
tain this  term  (the  so-called  Similitudes)  about 
105-64  B.C.^ 

Jesus  thinks  of  his  mission  as  limited  to  a 
definite  class  among  the  Jews,  viz.,  the  ''sinners," 
that  is,  those  who  were  lax  in  their  religious  observ- 
ances (2:17).  Jesus  regards  the  joy  or  sadness  of 
the  disciples  as  being  controlled  by  his  own  presence 
or  absence  (2:18-22).  It  is  possible  that  in  his 
reference  to  the  Sabbath  (2 :  28)  he  is  asserting,  not 
his  own  personal  superiority  to  the  Sabbath  legis- 
lation, but  the  general  truth  that  the  interests  of 
mankind  take  precedence  over  punctilio  in  religious 
customs.  He  asserts  himself  as  a  leader  in  appoint- 
ing the  Twelve  as  field  preachers  and  exorcists 
(3:13-19).  Consciousness  of  his  unique  powers  is 
shown  in  3:27.  He  has  the  highest  reverence  for 
that  influence  of  God  under  which  he  works  and  by 
which  he  is  empowered  (3:28-30).  He  is  aston- 
ished at  and  thwarted  by  the  resistance  of  his 

'  See  Charles,  The  Book  of  Enoch,  2d  ed.,  191 2,  p.  xi. 


1 62  What  Jesus  Taught 

fellow-townsmen  (6 :  i-6) .  He  sends  out  his  twelve 
disciples  in  six  pairs  on  a  tour  of  preaching  and 
healing  (6:7-13).  Jesus'  fame  spreads  and  he  is 
thought  to  be  John  the  Baptist  or  Ehjah  come  to 
life  again,  or  a  new  prophet  (6 :  14-15).  He  speaks 
with  aggressiveness  and  certitude  (7:14).  He 
thinks  of  his  ministry  as  properly  limited  to  the 
Jews  (7:27).  He  tries  again  in  vain  to  avoid 
publicity  (7:36;  cf.  also  8:27).  He  expresses  his 
pity  for  the  hungry  and  weary  crowds  that  have 
followed  him  (8:1-3).  In  Caesarea-Philippi  in 
northern  Palestine  he  questions  the  disciples  as  to 
the  popular  opinions  concerning  him,  whereupon 
Peter  declares  his  belief  that  Jesus  is  the  Messiah 
(8:27-28).  This  passage  is  often  called  the  ' '  Great 
Confession."  Jesus  now  warns  the  disciples  of  his 
approaching  rejection  and  death,  and  predicts  his 
resurrection  (8:31).  He  calls  upon  all  who  would 
be  his  disciples  to  make  a  full  renunciation  even  of 
life  itself  (8:34).  He  enjoins  the  three  not  to  tell 
what  they  have  seen  on  the  Mount  of  Transfigura- 
tion until  after  the  resurrection  (9:9).  He  believes 
his  sufferings  to  be  foretold  in  Old  Testament 
prophecy  (9:12).  He  repeats  his  prediction  of  his 
arrest,  death,  and  resurrection  (9:31).  Kindness 
shown  a  child  he  accepts  as  a  kindness  done  to 
himself  and  as  a  service  of  God  (9:37).  Notice  the 
similar  passage  in  10:13-16.  He  accepts  as  his 
supporters  any  who   follow  his  principles,   even 


About  Himself  163 

though  they  may  not  attach  themselves  to  the 
company  of  his  disciples  (9:38-40).  Those  who 
befriend  or  injure  his  disciples  will  be  rewarded  or 
punished  (9 140-4 1).  His  sense  of  leadership  shows 
itself  strongly  in  his  proposal  to  a  rich  man  that  he 
give  his  wealth  to  charity  and  become  his  disciple 
(10:17-22).  At  the  same  time  he  declines  to  be 
himself  called  "good"  (10:18).  He  believes  that 
those  who  sacrifice  for  his  sake  will  be  vastly 
rewarded  later  in  the  Kingdom  (10:28-31).  He 
again  predicts  his  betrayal,  death,  and  resurrec- 
tion (10:3  2-34) .  He  tests  the  willingness  of  James 
and  John  to  undergo  the  sufferings  he  will  himself 
endure,  but  disclaims  ability  to  appoint  them  to  the 
chief  places  in  the  Kingdom  (10:35-40).  His  mis- 
sion is  to  serve  and  to  give  up  his  life  for  others  (10 : 
45).  He  plans  a  dramatic  entry  into  Jerusalem 
and  accepts  the  enthusiastic  shoutings  of  his  adher- 
ents (11 :  i-io).  He  blasts  a  fig  tree  because  it  has 
no  fruit,  although  it  was  not  the  time  of  year  for 
figs.  Later  he  draws  from  the  incident  a  lesson  on 
the  possibilities  of  undoubting  prayer  (11:12-14, 
20-24).  By  ^  shrewd  question  he  silences  his 
critics  (11:27-32).  In  the  parable  of  the  Wicked 
Husbandmen  he  refers  to  himself  as  the  son  of  the 
vineyard  owner  and  forecasts  his  own  death  and 
subsequent  triumph  (12:1-12). 

From  Ps.  110:1  Jesus  argues  that  the  Messiah  is 
not  to  be  thought  of  as  a  descendant  of  David, 


164  What  Jesus  Taught 

since  David  applies  to  him  the  respectful  title  of 
"Lord,"  which  would  be  a  reversal  of  the  custom- 
ary relationship  of  respect  between  ancestor  and 
descendant  (12:35-37).^  He  asserts  his  ignorance 
of  the  day  of  the  catastrophic  establishment  of  the 
Kingdom,  but  thinks  of  it  as  coming  in  a  few  years 
(13:32;  cf.  vs.  30).  The  act  of  the  woman  who 
anointed  him  is  to  be  heralded  over  the  whole  world 
(14:3-9).  He  predicts  his  betrayal  by  one  of  the 
Twelve  (14: 18-20),  regarding  it  as  the  fulfilment  of 
Scripture,  but  not  considering  the  betrayer  to  be 
thereby  relieved  from  responsibility  (14:18-20). 
The  bread  and  wine  at  the  Last  Supper  are  fore- 
tokens of  his  approaching  doom  (14:22-25).  In 
Gethsemane  he  prays  to  be  delivered  from  it,  but  is 
willing  to  undergo  it  if  God  wills  (14:32-36),  and 
recognizes  that  his  hour  has  now  come  (14:41). 
He  protests  against  his  secret  arrest,  but  sees  in  it  a 
fulfilment  of  Scripture  (14:48-49).  At  the  trial 
Jesus  declares  himself  the  Messiah  and  predicts  his 
return  upon  the  clouds  (14:61-62).  On  the  cross 
he  loses  the  sense  of  God's  support  (15:34).  The 
present  ending  of  Mark  (16:9-20)  is  not  regarded 
as  the  original  ending  of  the  Gospel.     Other  endings 

'  That  Jesus  understood  the  use  of  the  rabbinic  method  of 
argument  with  its  subtle  interpretations  of  Scripture  appears  also 
in  other  passages:  for  example,  his  proof  of  the  continued  life  of 
the  dead,  Mark  12:26-27;  Luke  20:27,  basing  it  on  Exod.  3:6; 
his  argument  against  divorce,  Mark  10:5-8;  Matt.  19:4-8, 
basing  it  on  Gen.  i :  27. 


About  Himself  165 

exist,  but  none  of  these  is  thought  to  be  the  origi- 
nal. It  is  one  of  the  romantic  possibilities  of  New 
Testament  science  that  some  day  the  missing  end- 
ing of  Mark  may  be  discovered.  For  complete- 
ness, however,  let  us  add  the  evidence  of  this 
conclusion  added  by  a  later  hand  as  to  what  Jesus 
taught  about  himself.  After  the  resurrection  he 
appears  to  the  eleven,  reproaches  them  for  their 
tardiness  in  crediting  his  resurrection,  instructs 
them  to  evangelize  the  world,  and  mentions 
the  miraculous  powers  that  shall  be  enjoyed  by 
believers. 

Recapitulation. — Summarizing  Jesus'  teaching 
about  himself  as  it  appears  in  Mark,  we  note  that 
Jesus  regards  his  personal  mission  as  limited  to  the 
Jews,  and  tries  to  avoid  publicity,  though  he  later 
inaugurates  a  campaign  of  world-wide  propaganda. 
He  employs  the  Twelve  in  propagating  the  King- 
dom message.  He  is  interested  to  know  the  popu- 
lar impression  he  is  creating  and  elicits  from  Peter 
the  "Great  Confession."  He  repeatedly  predicts 
his  arrest,  sufferings,  and  death.  He  calls  himself 
the  Son  of  Man  and  in  various  ways  asserts  his 
sense  of  his  own  significance.  His  mission  is  to 
save  others  at  the  cost  of  his  own  life.  He  regards 
certain  incidents  of  his  life  as  having  been  pre- 
dicted in  the  Old  Testament.  He  asserts  his 
messiahship  and  believes  he  will  later  return  upon 
the  clouds. 


1 66  What  Jesus  Taught 

the  teaching  in  matthew 
Summary  of  Matthew's  report. — Matthew,  in 
the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  mentions  Jesus'  early- 
recognition  that  the  disciples'  relation  to  himself 
was  likely  to  entail  persecution  for  them  (5:11). 
He  strongly  asserts  his  loyalty  to  the  Mosaic  Law 
(5 :  17-20).  He  knows  that  men's  welfare  depends 
upon  their  acceptance  of  and  action  upon  his  teach- 
ings (7:24-27).  He  mentions  his  poverty  (8:20), 
in  the  same  connection  demanding  extreme  devo- 
tion to  his  leadership  (8:21-22).  He  asserts  his 
power  to  forgive  sins  (9:6).  He  calls  Matthew  to 
discipleship  by  a  simple  command  (10:9).  His 
mission  is  to  the  non-religious  (9:13).  His  pres- 
ence or  absence  makes  or  mars  the  disciples'  joy 
(9:15).  The  tenth  chapter  of  Matthew  abounds 
in  the  use  of  the  first  person  by  Jesus.  His  general 
attitude  is  one  of  assertion  and  command.  In 
response  to  John  the  Baptist's  query  as  to  whether 
he  was  the  expected  Messiah,  Jesus  calls  attention 
to  the  miracles  he  performs  and  congratulates  those 
who  do  not  disagree  with  him  (11: 2-6).  He  refers 
to  his  own  free  habits  in  eating  and  drinking  and  the 
criticism  it  occasions  (11 : 9).  In  a  passage  which 
sounds  strangely  like  the  Gospel  of  John,  Jesus 
claims  to  be  endowed  with  extraordinary  authority 
and  to  be  gifted  with  unique  knowledge  of  God  (11: 
26-27).  He  defends  himself  against  the  charge  of 
being  possessed  by  the  chief  of  the  demons,  Beelze- 


About  Himself  167 

bub,  and  denounces  the  suggestion  as  an  unpardon- 
able sin  (12:27-32).  He  declares  himself  greater 
than  the  prophet  Jonah,  greater  even  than  King 
Solomon  (12:41-42).  Whoever  does  God's  will 
he  regards  as  closely  related  to  himself  (12:46-50). 
Jesus  proclaims  the  Kingdom  message  (13:37). 
At  the  judgment  Jesus  will  send  forth  angels  over 
the  earth  to  gather  out  all  unsuitable  persons  from 
the  Kingdom  for  destruction  (13:41).  To  a  gentile 
woman  who  asks  him  to  exorcise  a  demon  from  her 
daughter  Jesus  replies  that  his  mission  is  limited  to 
the  Jews  (15 :  24).  He  expresses  a  strong  feeling  of 
sympathetic  interest  in  the  crowds  that  follow  him 
(15:32).  Near  Caesarea-Philippi,  Jesus  inquires 
from  the  disciples  what  the  popular  view  concerning 
himself  is,  and  Peter  declares  his  conviction  that 
Jesus  is  the  Messiah  (16: 13-16).  This  passage,  it 
is  pointed  out,  argues  against  the  claim  that  Son  of 
Man  was  a  current  phrase  meaning  Messiah.  If 
Jesus  had  been  calling  himself  constantly  by  a  title 
which  people  in  general  would  recognize  as  equiva- 
lent to  Messiah,  why  would  he  regard  Peter's  recog- 
nition that  he  was  Messiah  as  the  result  of  a  special 
revelation?  Also  why  would  he  enjoin  secrecy 
upon  the  disciples  as  to  his  messiahship  ?  (16 :  20.) 
Following  Peter's  "Great  Confession"  Jesus 
predicts  his  sufferings,  death,  and  resurrection,  and 
foresees  his  return  accompanied  by  angels  and  act- 
ing as  Judge  of  Mankind  (16:21-28;    17:12,  22). 


1 68  What  Jesus  Taught 

To  show  kindness  to  a  child  is  to  show  kindness  to 
Jesus  himself  (18:5).  Children  were  brought  to 
Jesus  with  the  request  that  he  put  his  hands  on 
them  and  pray.  The  disciples  object,  but  Jesus 
instructs  them  that  the  children  are  not  to  be 
turned  away  (19:13-14).  To  a  man  who  queries 
as  to  what  good  thing  he  shall  do  to  insure  eternal 
life  Jesus  suggests  that  God  is  the  only  one  deserv- 
ing to  be  called  good  (19:17).  Jesus'  assertion  of 
command  over  men  is  shown  in  his  requirement  that 
this  man  give  his  wealth  to  the  poor  and  join  Jesus' 
band  of  wandering  preachers  (19:20).  To  the 
Twelve  who  have  followed  him  Jesus  promises 
thrones  and  tribal  judgeships  in  the  Kingdom,  while 
all  who  have  sacrificed  for  him  are  to  be  repaid  a 
hundred  times  over  besides  becoming  immortal 
(19:28-30).  He  describes  in  detail  his  approach- 
ing condemnation  and  execution  (20:18-19).  The 
authority  of  disposing  the  places  of  chief  distinction 
in  the  Kingdom  has  not  been  committed  to  Jesus 
(20: 23).  In  the  same  verse  he  alludes  to  his  com- 
ing sufferings  and  intimates  that  James  and  John 
will  ultimately  share  his  own  fate.  His  mission  is 
to  serve  others  by  his  life  and  death  (19:28). 
Jesus '  astuteness  in  debate  is  shown  in  his  defeat  of 
the  religious  leaders  who  demand  to  know  the 
source  of  his  authority  (21: 24-2  7) .  By  the  parable 
of  the  Wicked  Husbandmen  he  asserts  himself  to 
be  God's  favorite  representative  and  conveys   a 


About  Himself  169 

threat  of  coming  disaster  to  those  who  reject  his 
claims  (21:33-46).  He  asserts  his  relation  to  the 
disciples  to  be  that  of  a  teacher  and  master  (23:8, 
10).  During  the  calamities  that  precede  his  return 
the  disciples  are  to  beware  of  impostors  who  will 
themselves  perform  miracles  (24:24).  After  ter- 
rible portents  have  been  seen  in  earth  and  sky  he  is 
to  appear  in  the  clouds  accompanied  by  angels 
(24:30-31).  The  exact  date  of  this  is,  however, 
unknown  to  him  (24:36).  His  return  will  be  unex- 
pected and  he  counsels  perpetual  preparation  for 
it  (24:44,  45-51;  25:1-30).  At  the  Judgment, 
Jesus  will  be  the  arbiter  of  the  fate  of  the  non- Jew- 
ish world,  assigning  eternal  joy  or  misery  according 
to  the  attitude  men  have  shown  to  the  Jewish 
people  (25:31-46). 

Jesus  knows  that  his  death  is  to  take  place  at 
the  Passover  period  and  for  the  last  time  warns 
the  disciples  of  it,  two  days  before  the  event  (26 : 2). 
At  the  Last  Supper  he  points  out  Judas  as  the  one 
who  will  cause  his  arrest  (26:24-25).  In  Geth- 
semane  he  prays  to  be  delivered  but  is  submissive 
to  God's  will  (26:39-43).  He  believes  he  could  at 
the  last  summon  myriads  of  angels  for  his  protec- 
tion; protests  against  this  secret  arrest  when  he 
had  taught  in  public  unmolested,  but  regards  the 
whole  event  as  a  necessary  fulfilment  of  Scripture 
(26:53-56).  At  the  trial  before  Caiaphas,  Jesus 
again  asserts  his  unique  relation  to  God  and  de- 


lyo  What  Jesus  Taught 

scribes  his  return  upon  the  clouds  (26:64).  On  the 
cross  he  loses  his  feeling  of  God's  presence  and 
cries  aloud  (27:46).  After  the  resurrection  Jesus 
appoints  a  rendezvous  with  the  disciples  in  Galilee, 
at  which  time  he  asserts  his  supreme  authority  and 
instructs  them  to  evangelize  the  world  (28:10, 
16-20). 

Recapitulation. — Summing  up  Matthew's  report 
of  Jesus'  teaching  concerning  himself,  we  find  Jesus 
strongly  conscious  of  his  own  significance;  making 
insistent  demand  for  devotion  to  himself  and  his 
cause;  asserting  his  power  to  forgive  sins;  affirming 
extraordinary,  if  not  omnipotent  powers  and  unique 
relationship  to  God ;  claiming  superiority  to  Jonah 
and  Solomon;  calling  himself  the  Son  of  Man  and 
proclaiming  an  apocalyptic  program  which  included 
his  return  upon  the  clouds  with  angels,  that  return 
being  preceded  by  terrific  calamities  and  followed 
by  a  world- judgment;  expressing  sympathy  with 
crowds  and  forbidding  interference  with  the  chil- 
dren who  were  brought  to  him;  giving  assurance 
that  those  who  sacrifice  for  his  sake  will  be  abun- 
dantly rewarded;  repeatedly  predicting  his  suffer- 
ings, death,  and  resurrection,  sometimes  in  consider- 
able detail;  warning  the  disciples  against  impostors 
during  the  calamitous  days  preceding  his  return 
and  counseling  watchfulness  and  preparation;  as 
seeing  in  the  closing  events  of  his  life  a  fulfilment 
of  Scripture;   as  praying  to  escape  his  sufferings, 


About  Himself  171 

but  yielding  to  the  Father 's  will ;  as  believing  him- 
self able  to  summon  hosts  of  angels  to  save  him 
from  arrest;  as  losing  upon  the  cross  his  sustaining 
sense  of  the  presence  of  God;  as  limiting  his  own 
ministry  to  the  Jews,  but  after  his  resurrection 
sending  the  disciples  out  to  evangelize  the  world. 

THE  TEACHING  IN  LUKE 

Summary  of  Luke's  report. — Luke's  first  record 
of  a  teaching  of  Jesus  about  himself  narrates  his 
reply  to  his  mother  in  which  he  refers  to  the  Temple 
as  his  Father's  house  (2 :49),  a  remark  which  taken 
in  connection  with  his  boyhood  interest  in  the  Jew- 
ish law  has  been  thought  to  show  that  Jesus  enjoyed 
a  special  sense  of  relationship  to  God  even  from  a 
very  early  age.  He  anticipates  opposition  in  his 
own  city  and  in  his  synagogue  address  angers  his 
fellow-townsman  by  his  pro-gentile  attitude  (4:23- 
30) .  He  feels  the  urge  of  his  mission  as  a  preacher 
of  the  Kingdom  (4 :  43) .  As  in  Mark  and  Matthew, 
Jesus  demonstrates  his  power  to  forgive  sins  by 
curing  a  paralytic  (5:24-25).  He  speaks  of  his 
presence  or  absence  as  determining  the  joy  or  sor- 
row of  the  disciples  (5:34).  His  sense  of  ability 
to  command  appears  in  his  call  of  Levi  (5:27).  He 
feels  a  special  mission  to  the  irreligious  (5:32), 
He  anticipates  persecution  on  his  account  for  the 
disciples  (6:22).  Action  upon,  or  failure  to  act 
upon,  his  teachings  determines  men's  future  for 


172  What  Jesus  Taught 

weal  or  woe  (6 :  46-49) .  As  an  answer  to  John  the 
Baptist's  query,  he  cites  the  miracles  he  has  per- 
formed and  felicitates  those  who  are  not  repelled 
by  him  (7:18-23).  He  compares  unfavorably  the 
lack  of  attentions  shown  him  by  Simon  the  Pharisee 
with  the  devotion  of  the  woman  who  anointed  him 
with  costly  ointment  (7:44-50).  As  in  the  other 
Synoptic  Gospels  he  calls  those  his  kin  who  do 
God's  will  (8 :  19-21).  Questioning  the  disciples  as 
to  the  popular  opinion  concerning  him  he  elicits 
from  Peter  the  reply  that  he  is  God's  Messiah,  a 
statement  which  he  instructs  them  to  keep  secret 
(9:20-21).  He  predicts  his  own  rejection,  death, 
and  resurrection  (9:22)  and  calls  upon  his  followers 
for  devotion  to  the  death  (9:23-25).  His  return 
in  glory  is  not  far  distant  (9:26-27).  He  will  per- 
mit nothing  to  prevent  obedience  to  the  peremptory 
demand  of  discipleship  (9:57-62).  Welcome  or 
rejection  of  the  disciples  upon  their  preaching  tour 
is  tantamount  to  a  welcome  or  rejection  of  himself 
(10:16).  He  confers  upon  the  seventy  super- 
human abilities  over  snakes,  scorpions,  and  demons 
(10:19).  The  "Johannine"  passage  mentioned 
above  in  treating  of  Matthew's  account  of  Jesus' 
teaching  appears  also  in  Luke  (10:22-23).  He 
makes  the  same  argument  against  the  charge  of 
demon  possession  that  appears  in  Mark  and  Mat- 
thew (11:17-22),  though  in  Luke  the  remark  in 
reference  to  the  unpardonable  sin  is  transferred  to  a 


About  Himself  173 

later  point  (12:10).  As  before,  Jesus  asserts  his 
superiority  to  Jonah  and  Solomon  (11: 30-32) .  He 
refuses  to  act  as  arbitrator  in  a  family  difficulty  over 
an  inheritance  (12:14).  He  warns  the  disciples 
to  be  ready  for  his  future  coming  (12:40).  He 
realizes  the  divisive  and  revolutionary  character  of 
his  teaching  (12:49-53).  At  his  return  there  will 
be  those  whose  unpreparedness  will  bring  about 
their  rejection  (13:23-30).  Jesus  meets  non- 
chalantly the  Pharisee's  warning  as  to  Herod's 
desire  to  put  him  to  death,  regarding  himself  as 
"immortal  till  his  work  was  done"  (13:31-32).  In 
the  intermediate  period  before  his  return  the  dis- 
ciples will  wish  longingly  for  days  like  those  they 
are  now  enjoying  in  his  presence.  Indifference  and 
preoccupation  will  mark  social  life  before  his  return 
which  will  be  sudden  and  destructive  (17:22-36). 
He  welcomes  children  (18:16);  denies  the  right  to 
be  called  "good,"  a  term  applicable  to  God  alone 
(18:19);  proposes  voluntary  poverty  and  disciple- 
ship  to  a  rich  inquirer  (18:22).  In  the  parable  of 
the  Wicked  Husbandmen  he  lays  claim  to  a  unique 
relationship  to  God  (20:13)  and  predicts  dire  pun- 
ishment to  the  nation  for  rejecting  him  (20: 15-18). 
Before  his  return  many  impostors  will  arise,  imper- 
sonating himself  (21:8).  Adherence  to  him  will 
entail  persecution  for  the  disciples  (21:12,  17). 
After  the  period  of  calamity,  he  will  appear  upon  a 
cloud  in  power  and  glory  (21:27).     They  are  to 


174  What  Jesus  Taught 

pray  for  fortitude  to  endure  the  intermediate  days 
of  testing  (21:36).  At  the  Last  Supper  he  uses 
bread  and  wine  as  tokens  of  his  approaching  death 
(22:19-20).  He  promises  the  Twelve  thrones  and 
judgeships  over  the  twelve  tribes  of  Israel  (22:29- 
30).  In  Gethsemane,  Jesus  prays  for  deliverance 
from  his  approaching  suffering,  but  yields  to  the 
Father's  will  (22:42).  As  in  Matthew  he  protests 
against  the  secrecy  of  his  arrest  as  not  in  keeping 
with  his  own  bold  and  pubHc  teaching  (22:52-53). 
Before  the  Sanhedrin  he  asserts  his  favored  relation 
to  God,  a  statement  that  is  taken  as  blasphemy 
(22:67-71).  On  the  way  to  the  cross  Jesus 
addresses  the  women  along  the  way,  predicting  a 
period  of  terror  that  is  approaching  (23:27-31). 
On  the  cross  he  promises  one  of  his  fellow-sufferers 
a  place  in  Paradise  (23:43).  Luke  omits  Jesus' 
despairing  cry,  "My  God!  My  God!  Why  hast 
thou  forsaken  me?"  and  gives  the  confident  utter- 
ance, "Father,  into  thy  hands  I  commend  my 
spirit"  (23 :46).  On  the  walk  to  Emmaus  after  the 
resurrection  he  upbraids  his  companions  for  their 
failure  to  understand  the  Old  Testament  passages 
relating  to  him  and  his  sufferings,  following  this 
by  his  own  interpretation  of  them  (24 :  24-27).  He 
demonstrates  the  reality  of  his  body  to  the  incredu- 
lous disciples  (24:39-40).  He  appoints  the  dis- 
ciples to  the  task  of  world-evangelization.  For- 
giveness of  sins  is  to  be  preached  in  his  name.    He 


About  Himself  175 

will  presently  endow  the  disciples  with  extraor- 
dinary powers  promised  by  the  Father  (24:49). 

Recapitulation. — By  way  of  summary  of  Luke's 
presentation  of  Jesus'  teaching  about  himself  we 
note  that  it  agrees  largely  with  that  of  Mark  and 
Matthew,  the  material  peculiar  to  Luke  not  adding 
appreciably  to  the  other  gospels'  report  in  this 
particular.  Jesus  is  marked  throughout  Luke  by  a 
sense  of  significance,  strength  and  command;  he 
realizes  his  importance  to  the  disciples  and  the 
explosive  and  dangerous  nature  of  his  message;  he 
counts  those  as  relatives  who  do  God's  will;  he 
forbids  the  disciples  to  make  known  their  belief  in 
his  messiahship  until  after  the  resurrection,  though 
on  occasion  he  does  not  shrink  from  declaring  it 
himself;  he  endows  certain  of  his  followers  with 
supernatural  powers  of  resistance  to  venom  and 
with  ability  to  exorcise  demons;  he  anticipates  his 
sufferings,  passion,  and  resurrection;  he  looks  for- 
ward to  his  return  upon  the  clouds  after  the  period 
of  catastrophe.  He  promises  distinction  to  the 
disciples  in  the  established  Kingdom.  He  believes 
the  Old  Testament  to  contain  predictions  of  his 
sufferings  and  their  significance. 

RECAPITULATION    OF    THE    TEACHING    AS    GIVEN    BY 
MARK,   MATTHEW,  AND   LUKE 

We  are  now  ready  to  assemble  in  as  compact  a 
statement  as  we  can  the  results  of  our  examination 


176  What  Jesus  Taught 

of  Mark,  Matthew,  and  Luke  as  to  what  Jesus 
taught  about  hunself.  We  may  best  gather  our 
findings  under  subtopics. 

1.  His  sense  of  personal  significance.  Jesus  in 
his  teaching  about  himself  shows  a  stupendous 
assertiveness.  He  can  forgive  sins;  he  is  given 
power  from  God  to  do  miracles;  he  is  all  in  all  to 
his  disciples;  he  has  special  intimacy  with  and 
understanding  of  God ;  he  calls  men  to  discipleship 
peremptorily  and  will  not  abide  delay;  he  disre- 
gards long-established  religious  customs;  he  ex- 
tends and  spiritualizes  the  Mosaic  Law ;  to  attrib- 
ute the  source  of  his  powers  to  a  demonic  agency 
he  regards  as  an  unpardonable  sin;  he  is  the  chief 
figure  in  the  Kingdom  of  God,  which  to  all  intents 
and  purposes  is  really  a  Kingdom  of  Jesus;  he 
expects  to  return  some  time  after  his  resurrection 
on  the  clouds  with  angels  and  act  as  judge  over  the 
eternal  destinies  of  the  gentile  world,  while  the 
Twelve  act  as  judges  of  the  Jews. 

2.  His  controlling  purpose  in  life.  In  the  gos- 
pels studied  Jesus  regards  his  mission  as  a  ministry. 
This  word  has  lost  its  luster  through  professionali- 
zation,  but  a  moment's  thinking  brings  out  its 
meaning.  Jesus  declares  himself  sent  to  service. 
The  pressure  of  his  feeling  keeps  him  from  unduly 
prolonging  his  stay  in  a  single  city ;  it  moves  him  to 
compassion  over  crowds  of  tired  and  hungry  men ; 
it  leads  him  to  multiply  his  efforts  through  the 


About  Himself  177 

seventy  and  the  Twelve.  His  death,  too,  he  con- 
ceived was  a  necessary  part  of  God's  program  for 
him  and  influential  in  some  way  in  recalling  men  to 
right  living. 

As  in  other  instances,  we  face  here  the  difficulty 
of  the  probable  intermixture  of  the  views  of  the 
early  Christians  along  with  the  actual  teaching  of 
Jesus.  In  the  Fourth  Gospel  this  process,  of  which 
the  Synoptics  bear  traces,  is  carried  so  far  as  to 
convince  many  New  Testament  scholars  that  its 
representation  of  Jesus'  teaching  about  himself 
must  be  regarded  as  almost  wholly  the  creation  of 
its  author  or  of  the  group  to  which  he  belonged. 
Back  of  all  the  representations,  however,  we  sense 
a  personality  so  admirable,  so  commanding,  that 
we  too  are  glad  to  be  his  disciples. 


CHAPTER  X 

WHAT  JESUS  TAUGHT:  THE  HOPE  OF  THE  WORLD 

To  assert  Christianity's  superiority  a  natural 
claim. — Offhand,  we  who  have  been  brought  up  in  a 
Christian  environment  are  ready  to  affirm  that 
Christianity  is  the  hope  of  the  world.  However,  if 
we  had  been  brought  up  in  Mohammedanism  or 
Buddhism,  the  other  great  missionary  religions,  we 
should  probably  say  the  same  thing  about  the 
religion  we  knew,  for,  generally  speaking,  people 
think  as  they  are  taught  to  think.  If  we  were  Jews, 
enthusiastic  and  devoted  as  the  Jewish  people  are, 
we  should  regard  Judaism  as  teaching  the  truth  the 
world  needs  for  its  salvation;  being  Christians,  we 
say  Christianity,  rather  than  any  other  religion,  is 
the  hope  of  the  world.  We  are,  however,  under  no 
obligation  to  regard  our  natural  attitude  with  sus- 
picion, merely  because  it  is  natural.  We  wish  only 
to  assure  ourselves  by  reviewing  some  of  the  things 
that  make  such  an  assertion  rational  at  a  time  when 
Christianity  is  twenty  centuries  old  and  seems  to  be 
standing  on  the  threshold  of  a  new  and  greater 
Reformation, 

WHAT  IS   THE   WORLD-HOPE 

Lest  we  move  in  a  mist  of  uncertainty  and  come 
to  no  landing-place,  let  us  make  definite  to  our- 

178 


The  Hope  of  the  World  179 

selves  what  we  mean  by  the  world-hope  and,  also, 
what  we  understand  by  Christianity.  First,  as  to 
the  world-hope.  Those  who  are  able  to  view  life  in 
a  large  way  tell  us  that  human  society  has  passed 
through  various  stages  of  development  upon  a 
gradually  ascending  scale.  The  process  has  been  a 
slow  one.  At  times  certain  civilizations  have  out- 
stripped their  neighbors  and  made  a  great  place  in 
history.  For  various  reasons  they  have  then 
grown  weak,  and  younger  and  more  virile  nations 
have  taken  their  place.  Now  and  again  devastat- 
ing wars,  or  a  breakdown  of  national  character, 
have  delayed  the  process  or  development.  But  in 
general,  progress  has  been  made.  Though  beaten 
back  here  and  there,  humanity  has  been  gradually 
and  painfully  rising.  Now  what  is  the  goal  of  the 
social  process  ?  Toward  what  is  history  tending  ? 
Two  answers:  the  catastrophic  and  the  evolu- 
tionary.— To  this  question  two  answers  are  given. 
One  is  that  history  is  to  end  in  a  cataclysm  of  fail- 
ure. The  world  is  essentially  bad  and  its  condition 
is  hopeless.  It  is  like  a  house  on  fire  from  which 
only  a  few  precious  articles  can  be  saved.  Our  busi- 
ness as  Christian  leaders  is  to  save  what  we  can  and 
wait  patiently  for  the  wind-up  of  history  at  the 
second  coming  of  Christ,  which,  we  are  assured,  is 
close  upon  us.  The  second  answer  is  both  less 
dramatic  and  in  some  respects  less  comforting. 
It  looks  forward  to  an  indefinite  future,  during 


i8o  What  Jesus  Taught 

which  the  human  family  will  continue  its  slow 
upward  journey  for  millions  upon  millions  of  years. 
It  thinks  of  the  ideal  state  of  society  as  a  state  to 
be  attained  as  the  present  one  has  been,  by  persist- 
ent constructive  effort  on  the  part  of  men. 

Can  Christianity  meet  the  evolutionary  view? — 
If  this  view  be  the  one  that  history  shall  show  to  be 
correct,  does  Christianity  give  an  adequate  answer 
to  the  question,  What  is  the  goal  of  the  social  pro- 
cess ?  It  does.  When  Christianity  lay  as  a  germ, 
an  idea,  in  the  mind  of  its  founder,  it  had  in  it  that 
answer  in  the  spiritual  elements  of  Jesus'  concep- 
tion of  the  Kingdom  of  God.  When  that  state  of 
society  has  been  attained  all  over  the  planet  in 
which  human  beings  live  together  on  terms  of 
honesty,  sympathy,  kindness,  helpfulness,  service, 
reverence,  and  all  that  we  put  into  the  ideal  term 
brotherhood,  which  far  transcends  what  we  actually 
have  known  among  brothers,  and  when  human 
beings  all  over  the  planet  revere  and  worship  one 
holy,  just,  and  kindly  God,  in  whom  are  lodged  all 
the  virtues  we  put  into  the  ideal  term  fatherhood, 
which  far  transcends  what  we  have  actually  known 
among  fathers,  then  man  will  have  become  super- 
man and  the  Kingdom  of  God  will  have  come. 

It  is  this  world-hope  of  a  perfected  society, 
when,  in  the  phrase  of  the  Apocalypse,  the  new 
Jerusalem  is  let  down  from  God  upon  earth  and  the 
habitation  of  God  is  with  men,  which  thrills  the 


The  Hope  of  the  World  i8i 

hearts  of  many  Christians  today.  They  see  in 
Christianity  an  ideal  which  is  sufficient  to  give  them 
a  rational  explanation  of  what  has  been  called  the 
"riddle  of  the  universe." 

WHAT  IS   CHRISTIANITY? 

I.  The  church. — We  turn  now  to  the  second 
question  we  set  before  ourselves:  What  is  Chris- 
tianity? This  is  not  an  easy  question,  to  be 
answered  in  an  instant.  Definition  is  always  a 
task  of  surprising  difficulty,  particularly  so  when 
the  definition  proposes  to  delimit  the  elusive  out- 
lines of  spiritual  realities.  "What  is  Christianity? 
has  called  forth  monographs  and  whole  volumes. 
Of  the  various  answers  that  suggest  themselves, 
two  may  be  considered.  First,  it  may  be  said 
Christianity  is  an  objective  organization  function- 
ing in  society,  i.e.,  Christianity  is  historically  the 
church.  When  we  speak  of  the  spread  of  Chris- 
tianity in  the  Roman  Empire  we  mean  that  from 
village  to  village  and  from  city  to  city  the  new 
religion  spread  until  everywhere  there  were  groups 
of  Christians.  If  in  the  province  of  Galatia  in  54 
A.D.  there  were  10  churches  and  1,000  Christians, 
and  in  64  a.d.  there  were  20  churches  and  2,000 
Christians,  we  should  say  that  Christianity  had 
been  spreading.  Out  of  simple  beginnings  a  power- 
ful ecclesiastical  organization  developed  so  that 
historically  and  objectively  for  some  fifteen  cen- 


i82  What  Jesus  Taught 

turies  Christianity  was  the  Catholic  church.  For 
400  years  Christianity  has  taken  also  another  form, 
so  that  the  phase  most  familiar  to  us  is  Protestant- 
ism. When  Christianity  spreads  in  its  Protestant 
form  it  means  that  Protestant  churches  are  being 
organized  and  communicants  are  increasing.  If  in 
China  in  1870  there  are  200  churches  and  20,000 
Christians  and  in  1880  there  were  300  churches 
and  30,000  Christians,  we  should  say  Christianity 
is  spreading.  Historically  and  objectively  for 
400  years  Christianity  to  Protestants  has  meant 
the  extension  of  organized  churches  and  increase 
in  church  membership.  Christianity  spreads  as 
churches  spread  and  members  increase.  What 
then  is  Christianity  ?  From  this  point  of  view  it 
is  an  ecclesiastical  organization.  Catholic  or  Prot- 
estant. 

2.  A  system  of  belief. — From  a  second  point  of 
view,  Christianity  is  a  faith,  the  acceptance  of  a 
statement  or  system  of  belief.  Thus  when  we 
speak  of  a  Confucianist's  accepting  Christianity,  we 
mean  that  he  has  come  to  regard  as  true  the  doc- 
trinal statements  made  by  Christian  representatives 
or  publications.  Christianity  is  thought  of  as  a 
series  of  propositions  whose  truth  is  divinely  guar- 
anteed. When  a  man  believes  them  he  becomes  a 
Christian.  On  the  mission  fields  this  presentation 
of  Christianity  has  frequently  been  the  accepted 
method.     Christianity   in   this   sense   spreads   as 


The  Hope  of  the  World  183 

additional  individuals  come  to  give  credence  to  its 
doctrines. 

3.  A  way  of  behavior. — Still  a  third  answer  to 
this  question  occurs  to  some.  Christianity  they 
say  is  a  quality  of  life,  a  way  of  behavior.  It  may 
or  may  not  reside  in  an  organization.  The  act  or 
attitude  of  an  individual  or  corporation  may  or 
may  not  be  Christian,  irrespective  of  names  or 
titles.  The  acts  of  the  same  man  or  corporation 
may  at  times  be  Christian  and  at  other  times  not 
Christian.  Men  may  be  partly  Christianized. 
They  may  be  Christianized  in  their  ecclesiastical 
relations,  but  not  in  their  commercial  relations; 
they  may  be  Christianized  in  their  general  social 
relations,  but  un-Christian  in  their  domestic  rela- 
tions, or  vice  versa.  They  may  be  Christian  in 
their  relations  to  one  sex,  but  not  to  the  other. 
They  may  be  Christian  in  their  relations  with  com- 
patriots, but  un-Christian  in  their  relations  with 
foreigners.  Partial  Christianization  is  the  common 
characteristic  and  common  calamity  of  us  all. 
Failure  to  recognize  that  life  is  made  Christian  inch 
by  inch  and  that  a  man  may  be  Christian  in  one 
department  of  his  being  and  not  in  another  creates 
both  misunderstanding  of  ourselves  and  accusation 
of  others.  Our  ideal  is  to  be  pan-Christians. 
Christianity,  from  this  point  of  view,  is  an  idealiza- 
tion of  human  relationships.  It  consists  in  an 
attitude  toward  life's  ultimate  realities,  self,  others, 


184  What  Jesus  Taught 

and  God.  This  highly  spiritual  conception  of 
Christianity  as  socialized  behavior  would  admit  of 
one's  being  a  Christian  while  at  the  same  time 
remaining  a  Jew  or  a  Buddhist.' 

It  is  not  likely  that  any  one  of  these  answers 
is  altogether  wrong.  Christianity  may  well  be 
all  three,  organization,  conviction,  and  behavior. 
Just  now  we  stress  the  last,  knowing  that  it  will 
bring  the  others  after  it.  It  is  just  as  true  that 
action  molds  belief  as  that  belief  controls  action, 

4.  What  Jesus  taught. — A  fourth  answer  which 
may  be  taken  as  including  all  the  others  is  this: 
Christianity,  on  its  thought  side,  is  what  Jesus 
taught  minus  the  intermingled  apocalypticism  of 
the  gospels  and  plus  all  development  of  ideas  impli- 
cit in  his  teaching  or  in  harmony  with  the  highest 
representations  of  his  spirit.  It  is  the  Kingdom 
teaching  in  its  spiritual  and  ethical  statement 
expressing  itself  in  ways  suited  to  the  needs  and 
in  accordance  with  the  knowledge  of  any  given 
time.  As  to  its  organization,  it  may  take  any 
form  that  approves  itself  as  effective.  As  a  way 
of  behavior  it  consists  in  doing  all  in  human 
power  to  serve  humanity  and  raise  the  standard 
of  human  life. 

Summary  of  working  principles.— Summing  up 
the  working  principles  suggested   by  our   study 

'  For  an  exact  parallel  in  the  spiritual  conception  of  Judaism, 
see  Paul's  remark  in  Rom.  2 :  28-29, 


The  Hope  of  the  World  185 

of  what   Jesus  taught   we   may   state   them    as 
follows : 

1.  The  human  emphasis.  In  all  situations  the 
most  important  element  is  the  human  one,  that  is 
the  human  beings  affected.  Employers  are  learn- 
ing this  and  are  thinking,  not  only  of  the  quaUty 
and  quantity  of  the  product,  but  of  the  effect  of 
the  process  upon  the  character  of  the  employee.  It 
is  easy  to  fall  into  the  way  of  thinking  that  the 
trivial  matter  of  routine  we  happen  to  be  engaged 
in  is  more  important  than  the  human  being  whose 
need  presents  a  temporary  interruption.  Such  an 
attitude  may  well  be  represented  by  the  priest  and 
the  Levite  in  Jesus'  story  of  the  Good  Samaritan. 
Let  us  settle  it  forever  in  our  minds  that  no  program 
or  prejudice  or  theological  doctrine  is  so  important 
as  doing  bits  of  human  service. 

2.  The  character  emphasis.  In  human  beings 
the  most  important  element  is  character.  Educa- 
tion, native  abiUty,  manners,  money,  are  all  desir- 
able, but  most  important  of  all  is  that  quality  of 
personaUty  which  is  the  result  of  heredity,  environ- 
ment, and  personal  decisions,  and  which  at  any 
given  moment  is  the  expression  of  what  the  person 
is.  As  this  has  largely  been  made  by  action,  it 
may  be  changed  by  action. 

3.  The  developmental  emphasis.  Since  char- 
acter is  a  product,  we  must  constantly  think,  plan, 
work,  talk,  and  act  in  a  way  calculated  to  conserve 


1 86  What  Jesus  Taught 

the  good  character  we  and  our  fellows  have  attained, 
and  to  develop  better  character.  As  character  is 
so  molded  by  experience,  those  who  have  it  in  their 
power  to  choose  experiences  for  others  hold  a  serious 
opportunity  and  responsibility.  To  provide  whole- 
some, developmental  experience  is  a  duty  we  owe 
both  to  others  and  to  ourselves.  We  must  be  hke  a 
chess-player,  thinking  several  moves  ahead,  i.e., 
studying  the  modification  of  character  Kkely  to  be 
produced.  Because  it  led  nowhere,  much  educa- 
tional and  religious  work  has  been  a  failure.  Here 
is  the  preliminary,  testing  question  always:  What 
character  changes  may  I  expect  this  to  produce  ? 

4.  The  religious  emphasis.  Religion  is  always 
a  powerful  element  in  shaping  character.  People 
have  latent  religious  capacities  which  rightly 
developed  will  make  for  breadth  of  interest,  depth 
of  conviction,  and  social  usefulness.  As  planners 
and  builders  of  the  more  ideal  life  of  the  future,  our 
task  is  therefore  ultimately  and  essentially  a  reli- 
gious one.  In  the  past,  religious  work  has  been  too 
largely  confined  to  the  communication  of  opinion. 
Now  religious  work  is  better  conceived  of  as  partici- 
pation in  the  process  of  producing  an  improved 
type  of  human  living. 

5.  The  individual  emphasis.  Much  of  the  most 
effective  work  we  do  is  in  personal  conversation. 
In  these  conversations  there  is  need  of  sympathy 
and  understanding  rather  than  dogmatic  argument. 


The  Hope  of  the  World  187 

Often  we  help  most  by  just  listening.  For  every 
person  there  is  a  clue  to  the  fullest  life,  the  most 
complete  realizing  of  himself.  Our  task  is,  having 
first  found  that  clue  for  ourselves,  to  help  others  in 
finding  it  for  themselves.  We  can  not  do  it  with  a 
formula,  for  as  persons  differ  methods  must.  What 
we  want  is  that  every  person  shall  reach  his  best 
possibilities.  To  do  that  he  must  Christianize  his 
living,  that  is,  act  in  accordance  with  the  best 
ideals  accessible  to  him.  As  we  help  people  into 
reverence,  prayer,  kindliness,  courage,  cleanness, 
sincerity,  and  unselfish  action,  we  shall  be  helping 
to  reaUze  that  Kingdom  of  which  Jesus  taught  and 
which,  in  its  ideal,  spiritual  aspects  is  still  the  hope 
of  the  world. 

Final  summary  of  the  course. — We  find  Jesus' 
teaching  as  a  part  of  the  Bible,  a  book  which  thou- 
sands of  people  of  varying  types,  nationahties,  and 
interests  are  studying,  among  whom  is  our  own  dis- 
cussion group.  We  therefore  surveyed  the  motives 
that  lead  people  to  study  the  Bible,  and  decided 
what  our  own  motive  was  to  be.  In  beginning  any 
study  it  is  naturally  important  to  get  at  fiirst  a 
general  conception  of  its  character.  This  is  espe- 
cially necessary  in  the  case  of  the  Bible,  because  of 
the  influence  of  one's  general  conception  of  its 
character  upon  one's  religious  views.  For  this 
reason  we  discussed  that  topic,  making  clear  to  our- 
selves what  our  attitude  toward  the  Bible  was  to  be. 


1 88  What  Jesus  Taught 

To  orientate  ourselves  further  in  our  study,  we 
considered  the  world  Jesus  hved  in,  as  to  its  constit- 
uent elements  and  its  controlling  ideas.  To  avoid 
the  superficial  notion  that  it  is  perfectly  easy  to 
understand  the  teaching  of  Jesus,  we  inquired  into 
the  importance  and  the  difficulty  of  knowing  what 
Jesus  taught.  We  then  brought  together  all  his 
teaching  on  several  topics  of  present  interest,  viz., 
civilization,  hate,  war  and  non-resistance,  democ- 
racy, religion,  himself,  making  a  serious  effort  to 
understand  it  and  to  weigh  its  value  for  our  own 
lives,  concluding  with  the  present  study  of  the 
relation  of  Jesus'  teaching  to  the  world's  ideal 
future. 

Intellectual  honesty  and  the  spirit  of  our  age 
forbid  us  to  accept  without  thinking  any  reHgious 
teaching,  however  ancient  and  respectable.  Free- 
dom to  inquire  and  to  investigate  is  our  inherent 
right,  and  we  do  well  to  insist  upon  it.  To  main- 
tain an  independent,  impersonal  attitude,  critical 
in  the  right  sense,  is  essential  to  clear  thinking  and 
correct  conclusions  when  one  deals  with  historical 
studies,  such  as  the  study  of  what  Jesus  taught  is. 
The  New  Testament,  as  well  as  the  Old,  the 
reported  teaching  of  Jesus,  as  well  as  the  reported 
teaching  of  Socrates,  must  approve  itself  to  our 
reason  and  our  consciences  before  it  can  rightly 
become  a  norm  for  our  living.  If  we  have  been 
accustomed  to  suppose  it  our  duty  to  accept  with- 


The  Hope  of  the  World  189 

out  inquiry  what  is  presented  to  us  as  the  teaching 
of  Jesus  or  the  Bible  or  our  church,  wc  have  not 
been  living  up  to  our  intellectual  obligations,  and 
are  in  duty  bound  to  scrutinize  the  truth  and  value 
of  these  claims  and  to  examine  our  convictions  to 
see  how  well  founded  they  are.  This  is  a  necessary 
initial  part  of  the  larger  constructive  process  by 
which  we  arrive  at  religious  views  which  are  reason- 
able and  tenable  and  which  articulate  with  our 
findings  in  other  fields  of  study  and  experience. 
The  mere  questioning  or  discarding  of  views  for- 
merly held  is  not  enough,  yet  people  sometimes  stop 
there,  not  realizing  that  negation  is  the  mark  of  a 
tyro,  and  that  the  freedom  we  need  is  not  freedom 
to  destroy,  but  freedom  to  build. 

Centuries  and  millenniums  will  pass.  Millions 
of  years  hence  people  will  be  living  where  we  live 
now,  a  life  modified  by  the  changes  and  improve- 
ments that  will  have  been  made.  But  always 
truth,  righteousness,  reverence,  forgiveness,  help- 
fulness, human  interest,  modesty,  devotion  to  a 
great  ideal,  the  love  of  nature  and  of  little  children, 
enthusiasm  over  a  visioned  future,  all  things  that 
Jesus  stood  for,  will  be  as  real  and  valuable  as 
they  were  in  his  day  and  as  they  are  now.  It  is  the 
discovery  of  these  imperishable  values  that  make 
worth  while  the  study  of  What  Jesus  Taught. 


INDEX 


INDEX 


Antiquity  of  Jesus,  66 

Apocrypha :  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, 35  S.;  of  the  Old 
Testament,  32  f. 

Apostolic  Fathers,  37 

Approach:  the  theological, 
69  f.;  the  historical,  70;  the 
practical,  71 

Aramaic,  6 

Baraca  classes,  xx 

Bible:  a  literature,  26;  effect 
of  not  studying,  18  ff.;  lan- 
guages of,  6;  real  value  of, 
42  f. 

Bible  readers  in  England,  19 
footnote 

Bible  translation,  history  of,  41 

Biblical  ideas,  development  of, 
27  f. 

Bibliomancy,  14  ff. 

Character  building,  16  ff. 
Christianity:     as   the   church, 

181  f.;    a  system  of  belief, 

182  f.;    a  way  of  behavior, 

183  £.;    its  superiority,  178; 
what  Jesus  taught,  184 

Civilization:  of  Jesus' time,  74; 
Jesus'  ideal  of,  74  f.;  making 
of,  72  f.;  marks  of  an  ideal, 
73;  meaning  of  term,  72 

Custom,  I 

Democracy:    Jesus  and,    118; 

fundamental  conceptions  of, 

ii9ff. 
Demons,  52  f. 


Devotion,  16 

Discussion  group  method,  2; 
essential  of,  56 

Epictetus,  16,  50 
Essentials   for   successful   dis- 
cussions, xix 

Final  summary  of  the  course, 

187 
Fourth  Gospel,  177 

God  in  our  world,  59  f. 

Gospels:  doctrinal  coloring  of, 
65;  interweaving  of  docu- 
ments in,  65 

Greek  of  the  New  Testament,  8 

Habit,  I 

Hate:     problem    of,     loi  ff.; 

Jesus  and,  102  ff. 
Hebrew  of  the  Old  Testament, 

6f. 
Historical  criticism,  40  f . 
History,  interest  in,  9 

Impulsive  action,  i 
Josephus,  50-52 

Kingdom     of     God,     74-100, 

passim 
Kingdom     teaching,     present 

value  of,  97  f. 

Language  of  Jesus,  64  f . 
Literature:    definition  of,   23; 

forms  of,  in  the  Bible,   28; 

function  of,  25;  the  Bible  a 

literature,  26 


193 


194 


What  Jesus  Taught 


Method  of  study,  75  ff. 
Miracles,     views     concerning, 

53  S- 
Misdirection  in  Bible-study,  5 
Modern  versions,  42  f. 

Non-resistance:  a  mediating 
view  of,  109  f.;  assump- 
tions regarding  and  objec- 
tions to,  iiof.;  the  truth 
in  and  objections,  1 1 2  ff . 

Obstreperous  members,  how  to 
handle,  xxii 

Palestine,    history    of,    44  ff.; 

life  of,  46;    significance  of, 

45  f. 
Prayer,  2 
Proof-texts,   use  of  the  Bible 

for,  10  ff. 

Rabbinic  argument,  164 

Reasoned  action,  i 

Religion:  in  Palestine,  128  ff.; 

Jesus  a  great  teacher  of,  129; 

summary  of  Jesus'  teaching 

concerning,  155  ff. 
Resume  of  the  Old  Testament, 

29  ff. 

Sermon-making,  12  ff. 
Sermon  on  the  Mount,  137  ff. 


Son  of  Man,  meaning  of,  160  f., 

167 
Source    material,    meagemess 

of,  62 
Superficiality  in  Bible-study,  4 
Supernatural     evil     agencies : 

early     Christian     view     of, 

50  ff.;  present  view  of,  49  f. 
Survey  of  the  New  Testament, 

Synoplikos,  meaning  of,  xvii 

Textual  criticism,  39  f. 
Traditional  religious  ideas,  66 

War,  direct  teaching  concern- 
ing, 105;  indirect  teaching, 
losff. 

"What  Would  Jesus  Do?"  67 

Working  principles,  184  ff. 

World-civilization,  view  of  a 
possible,  98  ff. 

World-hope:  catastrophic  and 
evolutionary  ^^ews  of,  179; 
definition  of,  178  f. 

World  of  Jesus,  the,  47  f.; 
God,  supreme  person  in,  58; 
people  a  factor  of,  56 

Y.M.C.A.,  xviii,  xx 
Y.W.C.A.,  xviii,  xx 


PRINTED  IN  THE  0.S.A. 


THE  CONSTRUCTIVE  STUDIES 

The  Constructive  Studies  comprise  volumes  suitable 
for  all  grades,  from  kindergarten  to  adult  years,  in 
schools  or  churches.  In  the  production  of  these  studies 
the  editors  and  authors  have  sought  to  embody  not 
only  their  own  ideals  but  the  best  product  of  the 
thought  of  all  who  are  contributing  to  the  theory  and 
practice  of  modem  religious  education.  They  have 
had  due  regard  for  fundamental  principles  of  peda- 
gogical method,  for  the  results  of  the  best  modem 
biblical  scholarship,  and  for  those  contributions  to 
religious  education  which  may  be  made  by  the  use  of 
a  religious  interpretation  of  all  life-processes,  whether 
in  the  field  of  science,  literature,  or  social  phenomena. 

Their  task  is  not  regarded  as  complete  because  of 
having  produced  one  or  more  books  suitable  for  each 
grade.  There  will  be  a  constant  process  of  renewal 
and  change,  and  the  possible  setting  aside  of  books 
which,  because  of  changing  conditions  in  the  religious 
world  or  further  advance  in  the  science  of  religious 
education,  no  longer  perform  their  function,  and  the 
continual  enrichment  of  the  series  by  new  volumes  so 
that  it  may  always  be  adapted  to  those  who  are 
taking  initial  steps  in  modern  rehgious  education,  as 
well  as  to  those  who  have  accepted  and  are  ready  to 
put  into  practice  the  most  recent  theories. 

As  teachers  profoundly  interested  in  the  problems  of 
religious  education,  the  editors  have  invited  to  co- 
operate with  them  authors  chosen  from  a  wide  territory 
and  in  several  instances  already  well  known  through 
practical  experiments  in  the  field  in  which  they  are 
asked  to  write. 


The  editors  are  well  aware  that  those  who  are  most 
deeply  interested  in  reUgious  education  hold  that 
churches  and  schools  should  be  accorded  perfect 
independence  in  their  choice  of  hterature  regardless  of 
pubMshing-house  interests  and  they  heartily  sympa- 
thize with  this  standard.  They  realize  that  many 
schools  will  select  from  the  Constructive  Studies  such 
volumes  as  they  prefer,  but  at  the  same  time  they 
hope  that  the  Constructive  Studies  will  be  most  widely 
serviceable  as  a  series.  The  following  analysis  of  the 
series  will  help  the  reader  to  get  the  point  of  view  of 
the  editors  and  authors. 

KINDERGARTEN,  4-6  YEARS 

The  kindergarten  child  needs  most  of  all  to  gain 
those  simple  ideals  of  life  which  will  keep  him  in  har- 
mony with  his  surroundings  in  the  home,  at  play,  and 
in  the  out-of-doors.  He  is  most  susceptible  to  a  reli- 
gious interpretation  of  all  these,  which  can  best  be 
fostered  through  a  program  of  story,  play,  handwork, 
and  other  activities  as  outlined  in 

The  Sunday  Kindergarten  (Ferris).  A  teachers'  manual 
giving  directions  for  the  use  of  a  one-  or  two-hour 
period  with  story,  song,  play,  and  handwork.  Per- 
manent and  temporary  material  for  the  children's 
table  work,  and  story  leaflets  to  be  taken  home. 

PRIMARY,  6-8  YEARS,  GRADES  I-HI 

At  the  age  of  six  years  when  children  enter  upon  a 
new  era  because  of  their  recognition  by  the  first  grade 
in  the  public  schools  the  opportunity  for  the  cultivation 
of  right  social  reactions  is  considerably  increased. 
Their  world  still,  however,  comprises  chiefly  the  home, 
the  school,  the  playground,  and  the  phenomena  of 


nature.  A  normal  religion  at  this  time  is  one  which 
will  enable  the  child  to  develop  the  best  sort  of  hfe 
in  all  these  relationships,  which  now  present  more 
complicated  moral  problems  than  in  the  earlier  stage. 
Religious  impressions  may  be  made  through  inter- 
pretations of  nature,  stories  of  life,  song,  prayer,  simple 
scripture  texts,  and  handwork.  All  of  these  are 
embodied  in 

Child  Religion  in  Song  and  Story  (Chamberlin  and  Kern). 
Three  interchangeable  volumes,  only  one  of  which  is 
used  at  one  time  in  all  three  grades.  Each  lesson  pre- 
sents a  complete  service,  song,  prayers,  responses,  texts, 
story,  and  handwork.  Constructive  and  beautiful 
handwork  books  are  provided  for  the  pupil. 

JUNIOR,  9  YEARS,  GRADE  IV 
When  the  children  have  reached  the  fourth  grade 
they  are  able  to  read  comfortably  and  have  developed 
an  interest  in  books,  having  a  "reading  book"  in 
school  and  an  accumulating  group  of  story-books  at 
home.  One  book  in  the  household  is  as  yet  a  mystery, 
the  Bible,  of  which  the  parents  speak  reverently  as 
God's  Book.  It  contains  many  interesting  stories 
and  presents  inspiring  characters  which  are,  however, 
buried  in  the  midst  of  much  that  would  not  interest 
the  children.  To  help  them  to  find  these  stories  and 
to  show  them  the  living  men  who  are  their  heroes  or 
who  were  the  writers  of  the  stories,  the  poems,  or 
the  letters,  makes  the  Bible  to  them  a  living  book 
which  they  will  enjoy  more  and  more  as  the  years 
pass.    This  service  is  performed  by 

An  Introduction  to  the  Bible  for  Teachers  of  Children  (Cham- 
berlin). Story-reading  from  the  Bible  for  the  school 
and  home,  designed  to  utilize  the  growing  interest  in 
books  and  reading  found  in  children  of  this  age,  in 


cultivating  an  attitude  of  intelligent  interest  in  the 
Bible  and  enjoyment  of  suitable  portions  of  it.  Full 
instructions  with  regard  to  picturesque,  historical,  and 
social  introductions  are  given  the  teacher.  A  pupU's 
homework  book,  designed  to  help  him  to  think 
of  the  story  as  a  whole  and  to  express  his  thinking, 
is  provided  for  the  pupil. 

JUNIOR,  10-12  YEARS,  GRADES  V-VH 

Children  in  the  fifth,  sixth,  and  seventh  grades  are 
hero-worshipers.  In  the  preceding  grade  they  have 
had  a  brief  introduction  to  the  hfe  of  Jesus  through 
their  childish  explorations  of  the  gospels.  His 
character  has  impressed  them  aheady  as  heroic  and 
they  are  eager  to  know  more  about  him,  therefore  the 
year  is  spent  in  the  study  of 

The  Life  of  Jesus  (Gates).  The  story  of  Jesus  graphically 
presented  from  the  standpoint  of  a  hero.  A  teacher's 
manual  contains  fuU  instructions  for  preparation  of 
material  and  presentation  to  the  class.  A  partially 
completed  story  of  Jesus  prepared  for  the  introduction 
of  illustrations,  maps,  and  original  work,  together  with 
aU  materials  required,  is  provided  for  the  pupil. 

In  the  sixth  grade  a  new  point  of  approach  to  some 
of  the  heroes  with  whom  the  children  are  already 
slightly  acquainted  seems  desirable.  The  Old  Testa- 
ment furnishes  examples  of  men  who  were  brave 
warriors,  magnanimous  citizens,  loyal  patriots,  great 
statesmen,  and  champions  of  democratic  justice.  To 
make  the  discovery  of  these  traits  in  ancient  characters 
and  to  interpret  them  in  the  terms  of  modem  boyhood 
and  girlhood  is  the  task  of  two  volumes  in  the  Ust. 
The  choice  between  them  will  be  made  on  the  basis  of 
preference  for  handwork  or  textbook  work  for  the 
children. 


Heroes  of  Israel  (Soares).  Stories  selected  from  the  Old 
Testament  which  are  calculated  to  inspire  the  imagina- 
tion of  boys  and  girls  of  the  early  adolescent  period. 
The  most  complete  instructions  for  preparation  and 
presentation  of  the  lesson  are  given  the  teacher  in  his 
manual.  The  pupil's  book  provides  the  full  text  of  each 
story  and  many  questions  which  wiU  lead  to  the  consid- 
eration of  problems  arising  in  the  Ufe  of  boys  and  girls 
of  this  age. 

Old  Testament  Stories  (Corbett).  Also  a  series  of  stories 
selected  from  the  Old  Testament.  Complete  instruc- 
tions for  vivid  presentation  are  given  the  teacher  in 
his  manual.  The  pupil's  material  consists  of  a  note- 
book containing  a  great  variety  of  opportunities  for 
constructive  handwork. 

Paul  was  a  great  hero.  Most  people  know  him  only 
as  a  theologian.  His  life  presents  miracles  of  courage, 
struggle,  loyalty,  and  self-abnegation.  The  next  book 
in  the  series  is  intended  to  help  the  pupil  to  see  such  a 
man.  The  student  is  assisted  by  a  wealth  of  local 
color. 

Paul  of  Tarsus  (Atkinson).  The  story  of  Paul  which  is 
partially  presented  to  the  pupU  and  partially  the  result 
of  his  own  exploration  in  the  Bible  and  in  the  library. 
Much  attention  is  given  to  story  of  Paul's  boyhood 
and  his  adventurous  travels,  inspiring  courage  and 
loyalty  to  a  cause.  The  pupil's  notebook  is  similar  in 
form  to  the  one  used  in  the  study  of  Gates's  "Life  of 
Jesus, "  but  more  advanced  in  thought. 

HIGH  SCHOOL,  13-17  YEARS 
In  the  secular  school  the  work  of  the  eighth  grade 
is  tending  toward  elimination.     It  is,  therefore,  con- 
sidered here  as  one  of  the  high-school  grades.     In  the 
high-school  years  new  needs  arise.    There  is  necessary 


a  group  of  books  which  will  dignify  the  study  of  the 
Bible  and  give  it  as  history  and  literature  a  place  in 
education,  at  least  equivalent  to  that  of  other  histories 
and  literatures  which  have  contributed  to  the  progress 
of  the  world.  This  series  is  rich  in  biblical  studies 
which  will  enable  young  people  to  gain  a  historical 
appreciation  of  the  religion  which  they  profess.  Such 
books  are 

The  Gospel  According  to  Mark  (Burton).  A  study  of  the 
life  of  Jesus  from  this  gospel.  The  full  text  is  printed  in 
the  book,  which  is  provided  with  a  good  dictionary  and 
many  interesting  notes  and  questions  of  very  great 
value  to  both  teacher  and  pupil. 

The  First  Book  of  Samuel  (WiUett).  Textbook  for  teacher 
and  pupil  in  which  the  fascinating  stories  of  Samuel, 
Saul,  and  David  are  graphically  presented.  The  com- 
plete text  of  the  first  book  of  Samuel  is  given,  many 
interesting  explanatory  notes,  and  questions  which 
win  stir  the  interest  of  the  pupil,  not  only  in  the  present 
volume  but  in  the  futiure  study  of  the  Old  Testament. 

The  Life  of  Christ  (Burgess).  A  careful  historical  study  of 
the  life  of  Christ  from  the  four  gospels.  A  manual  for 
teacher  and  pupil  presents  a  somewhat  exhaustive  treat- 
ment, but  full  instructions  for  the  selection  of  material 
for  classes  in  which  but  one  recitation  a  week  occxurs 
are  given  the  teacher  in  a  separate  outline. 

The  Hebrew  Prophets  (Chamberlin).  An  inspiring  presen- 
tation of  the  hves  of  some  of  the  greatest  of  the  prophets 
from  the  point  of  view  of  their  work  as  citizens  and 
patriots.  In  the  manual  for  teachers  and  pupils  the 
biblical  text  in  a  good  modern  translation  is  included. 

Christianity  in  the  Apostolic  Age  (Gilbert).  A  story  of 
early  Christianity  chronologically  presented,  fuU  of 
interest  in  the  hands  of  a  teacher  who  enjoys  the  his- 
torical point  of  view. 


In  the  high-school  years  also  young  people  find  it 
necessary  to  face  the  problem  of  living  the  Christian 
life  in  a  modern  world,  both  as  a  personal  experience 
and  as  a  basis  on  which  to  build  an  ideal  society.  To 
meet  this  need  a  number  of  books  intended  to  inspire 
boys  and  girls  to  look  forward  to  taking  their  places 
as  home-builders  and  responsible  citizens  of  a  great 
Christian  democracy  and  to  intelligently  choose  their 
task  in  it  are  prepared  or  in  preparation.  The  following 
are  now  ready: 

Problems  of  Boyhood  (Johnson).  A  series  of  chapters 
discussing  matters  of  supreme  interest  to  boys  and 
girls,  but  presented  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  boy. 
A  splendid  preparation  for  efficiency  in  all  life's  relation- 
ships. 
Lives  Worth  Living  (Peabody).  A  series  of  studies  of 
important  women,  biblical  and  modern,  representing 
different  phases  of  life  and  introducing  the  opportunity 
to  discuss  the  possibilities  of  effective  womanhood  in 
the  modern  world. 
The  Third  and  Fourth  Generation  (Downing).  A  series  of 
studies  in  heredity  based  upon  studies  of  phenomena 
in  the  natural  world  and  leading  up  to  important 
historical  facts  and  inferences  in  the  human  world. 

ADULT  GROUP 

The  Biblical  studies  assigned  to  the  high-school 
period  are  in  most  cases  adaptable  to  adult  class 
work.  There  are  other  volumes,  however,  intended 
only  for  the  adult  group,  which  also  includes  the 
young  people  beyond  the  high-school  age.  They  are 
as  follows: 

The  Life  of  Christ  (Burton  and  Mathews).  A  careful 
historical  study  of  the  life  of  Christ  from  the  four 
gospels,  with  copious  notes,  reading  references, 
maps,  etc. 


What  Jesus  Taught  (Slat en).  This  book  develops  an  unusual 
but  stimulating  method  of  teaching  groups  of  students 
in  colleges,  Christian  associations,  and  churches.  After 
a  swift  survey  of  the  material  and  spiritual  environment 
of  Jesus  this  book  suggests  outlines  for  discussions  of  his 
teaching  on  such  topics  as  civilization,  hate,  war  and 
non-resistance,  democracy,  religion,  and  similar  topics. 
Can  be  efifectively  used  by  laymen  as  well  as  professional 
leaders. 

Great  Men  of  the  Christian  Church  (Walker).  A  series  of 
delightful  biographies  of  men  who  have  been  influential 
in  great  crises  in  the  history  of  the  church. 

Christian  Faith  for  Men  of  Today  (Cook).  A  re-interpretation 
of  old  doctrines  in  the  light  of  modem  attitudes. 

Social  Duties  from  the  Christian  Point  of  View  (Henderson). 
Practical  studies  in  the  fundamental  social  relationships 
which  make  up  life  in  the  family,  the  city,  and  the  state. 

Religious  Education  in  the  Family  (Cope).  An  illuminating 
study  of  the  possibilities  of  a  normal  religious  develop- 
ment in  the  family  life.     Invaluable  to  parents. 

Christianity  and  Its  Bible  (Waring).  A  remarkably  compre- 
hensive sketch  of  the  Old  and  the  New  Testament 
religion,  the  Christian  church,  and  the  present  status 
of  Christianity. 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  the  Constructive  Studies  present 
no  sectarian  dogmas  and  are  used  by  churches  and  schools 
of  all  denominational  affiliations.  In  the  grammar-  and 
high-school  years  more  books  are  provided  than  there  are 
years  in  which  to  study  them,  each  book  representing  a 
school  year's  work.  Local  conditions,  and  the  preference 
of  the  Director  of  Education  or  the  teacher  of  the  class 
will  be  the  guide  in  choosing  the  courses  desired,  remember- 
ing that  in  the  preceding  list  the  approximate  place  given 
to  the  book  is  the  one  which  the  editors  and  authors  con- 
sider most  appropriate. 

For  prices  consult  the  latest  price  list.    Address 

THE  UNIVERSITY  OF  CHICAGO  PRESS 

CHICAGO  ....  ILLINOIS 


Date  Due 

Ap     .. 

-     '^'^'S, 

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